[CQ-Contest] Contesting and the FT8 Revolution

[Osiel Rodriguez]

Guys,

I’m fairly new here compared to the seasoned hams here.  While if feel that FT8 is fitting for a contest mode, irrespective of its speed, I certainly don’t feel I can feel the satisfaction of a contact.  In all honesty, YOU didn’t make the contact, your computer did!

That being said, I have have used it to allow my computer to make contacts for me, but I hardly feel it promotes the true nature of ham radio.

I’ll use it here and there, but as mentioned, I won’t call the contact mine!

73,
O.C. - NG7E 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jun 22, 2021, at 12:59 PM, ve9aa at nbnet.nb.ca wrote:
> 
> de VE9AA > I am not quite as old as Jim/N3BB but have been around radio since
> the 60's and I find myself of basically the same attitude.
> I'm no Luddite, and accept most technologies as they come along, but derive
> absolutely zero satisfaction from FT8 QSO's (I think I made 1 or 2 back when it
> came out). That's it in a nutshell.  Where is the satisfaction?
> 
> It is (was) simply amazing tech, but there's nothing in it for me.   All my
> 147DXCC's on 6m (for example)
> were done the old fashion way.  SSB or CW.  For me to work new ones via FT8
> would take all my (personal)
> pride away from the decades of hard work it took me to do that.
> 
> On a related aspect, FT8 leaves a bad taste in my mouth, as it has removed 95%
> of the 6m DX on SSB and CW DX chasing possibilities for me, though
> we did get a nice opening the other day to EU and I worked 55 stns on CW (guess
> they had also grown weary of watching a computer
> do it for them) as most are now "parked" on 50.313MHz or wherever, refusing to
> budge even though the band is open.
> 
> Contesting w/ FT8? Sorry. I don't see the lure.  Each to his own however and I
> remind myself the world would be a boring place if we were all the same.
> 
> 73
> 
> Mike VE9AA
> 
>  Tor, I'm having a hard time even taking this thread seriously ... no critique
> on your excellent comments. But why in the world would anyone want to use the
> FT modes for a contest? The speed-slowing limitations of the transmssion
> notwithstanding, letting my computer detect some sub-noise signals through
> brilliant DSP technology and talk w/out me ever at the keyboard to another
> system doing the same? That's a contact? Just baffles my 79 year old ham radio
> brain.
> 
> I totally "get it" that this is amazing technology and can have military and
> scientific uses, but for hobbiests to use it to "communicate" so-called amateur
> radio contacts in some form of competition just leaves me totally cold.
> 
> But it is what it is, apparently, to many in our hobby.
> 
> Jim N3BB
> _______________________________________________
> CQ-Contest mailing list
> CQ-Contest at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest