[CQ-Contest] Self spotting

[Mike Fatchett W0MU]

Guest ops/hired guns to super stations or any station should have their 
own class too?  Do we really want to alienate people like N6MJ who has 
stated on many occasions that he is hired gun, an amazing op with not so 
great (my words) technical skills?  Why does anyone care how I spend my 
money in the hobby?  If I want to build stations or rent remotes what 
does it matter?  If I hire a a firm to build my station do I get 
reclassified over someone that did all the work themselves?  How about 
we just accept Remotes however they are built and move on.  If you lose 
to one you might have lost to a better op.  Don't blame the remote blame 
yourself and get better as an op or improve the station you operator from.

Does tomorrows contesting look like this?

Hired gun, super station with internet
Hired gun, super station no internet
Average op, great tech skills no internet
Op that tries really hard on a limited budget with and without internet
Station builder over one million with internet
Great op own station
Great op who kinda helped build that station
MM with 2 hired guns
MM with no hired guns
MM with great cooks
MM with lousy food
Etc etc etc.

I hope not.

Contesting is just another competition where people attempt to avoid 
competition or keep people out of their categories by influencing judges 
or rules that benefit them.  I see it in horsemanship shows where people 
category shop much like a ham radio contest.  People would like you to 
believe they want competition but in reality they really don't.  Big 
time online gaming guilds(clubs) and players will stay away from each 
other by picking different servers to play on because they want to be 
king of the hill and destroy the competition.  If another competitor 
comes along they will either transfer off or if they actually collide 
and there is a clear winner many from the losing side will join the 
winners.

The only exception I see is KL9A and N6MJ who have embraced the 
competition and by doing so have become some if not the best contest ops 
we have.  #ZF2MJSUCKS  #KL9ABLOWS  I am sure there may be others in 
circles I am not in.  We need more of this, please.

There is some pretty sad and disturbing stuff going on in the background 
in contesting.  It is hard to believe that there is still a hard push to 
attempt to alienate remotes and make things more difficult instead of 
being open and accepting of new players and new COMPETITION.  If you got 
beat, do better, stop running to the competition committees trying to 
legislate rules to protect whatever legacy or territory you think you 
deserve.  The behavior is really shameful.

Lets all get along have fun, get better and leave ham radio and 
contesting a better place.

W0MU






On 3/16/2024 2:56 AM, Jim Brown wrote:
> Bob,
>
> What matters are (1) who built the station and (2) the RF path between 
> transmitter and receiver, which includes their antennas. The location 
> of the transmitter and those antennas determines the location of the 
> entry.
>
> As I see it, someone builds their station and remotes it is in one 
> class. Someone who rents a station or guests at a station someone else 
> built is in a very different class. Ham radio is a technical hobby -- 
> that is one part of a contest entry, operating is another part. BOTH 
> matter. and I view both as of equal value.
>
> As an example, my neighbor Bob Wolbert, K6XX, designed and built his 
> station from the ground up -- he cleared the land, built the towers, 
> rigged them, designed and built the control system, ran the hard line, 
> etc. I place him a very different class with someone who rolls into a 
> multi-op and sits down, or with someone who rents a station, whether 
> on-site or remote.
>
> Anyone with an open mind and brain knows that thanks to scoring rules 
> devised almost a century ago, in almost any DX contest, a decent 
> station in Maine is going to blow away a super-station in W6. THAT'S 
> the problem we ought to be concerned about. Not the guy in a city 
> buried in noise who remotes to a station where he can hear. Or builds 
> his own station where he CAN hear and remotes it. Especially in the 
> last case, his achievement is FAR greater than the appliance operator 
> in W1/W2 who plugs in his radio to the antennas he bought.
>
> 73, Jim K9YC
>
> On 3/15/2024 6:47 PM, kq2m at kq2m.com wrote:
>>
>> Hi Paul,
>>
>> Not to change the subject but, if "All required elements of a
>> contact must be exchanged via amateur radio.", then how do contacts
>> made via remote qualify?  Is the internet considered to be Amateur 
>> Radio?
>>
>> It seems to me that contacts made via remote - which requires the use 
>> of NON-Amateur Radio technology as a conduit for making those qso's - 
>> should be in a separate category because those NON-Amateur Radio 
>> means are essential to making those qso's.
>
>
>
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