[NCC] "Good Ones" from N0AX

[Tim Duffy K3LR]

What Makes a Good One?

In the past few years, we've lost some "good ones" - W6CF, K4OJ, N8SM,
W4AN,
W7BX, and W6BIP come to mind. There are many others. Why were these guys
"the Good Ones"?

There are many possible qualifications that could make a contester a
Good
One:

  a.. Technical expertise
  b.. Operating skill
  c.. Stamina & Willpower
  d.. Knowledge of history and the rules
Most of these fall into the category of "necessary but not sufficient."
This
is a phrase used in mathematics to refer to conditions for a hypothesis
to
be true. The condition must be true for the hypothesis to be true, but
more
is required to prove it. To be sure, you have to be able operate
skillfully
and consistently. You have to be able to pound the bands hour after hour
as
an Iron-Butt Contester. But there's more to it.

Thoreau said, "Some men fish their entire lives without realizing it's
not
fish they're after." Do you look around sometimes and wonder what the
point
is?

You don't get to decide you're a Good One. We do. The harder you try to
convince us, the less likely we are to agree. What other criteria make a
Good One?

  a.. Courageous Defense of Operating Ethics and Fair Play
  b.. Enthusiasm and Genuine Interest in Others
  c.. Generosity of Personal Time
Funny thing, these are all about relating to other people, not
contesting.

Looking out into the audience, I see plenty of Good Ones. Being a Good
One
is a relative thing and we need to realize that we have the opportunity
to
act as role models for beginning contesters. They need us. Contesting
needs
us. Both need us to do more than just contesting.

Hams have a tendency to get wrapped up in our own competitive world.
After
all, excellence demands focus and resources. Operating consumes time and
there are only 24 hours in a day (unless you rubber clock). How many of
us
have the "idea hamster" going all the time - how to get a better signal
over
the pole, getting more full calls out of a pileup, finding the extra
multipliers. Make no mistake, the Good Ones spend a lot of time working
the
details. That's necessary, but it's insufficient.

Think back to when you first started contesting. I know you read the
writeups and listened to your heroes in awe of their scores and skills.
Surely, these guys ate ambrosia and walked on air. For me, in the
1970's,
KH6IJ and W6OAT and K3ZO at LU5HFI and K7JA were all guys I looked up to
and
admired. Remember when you first met one of your heroes at a convention
or
multi-op? Gulp! I'll bet, as well, that they welcomed you and made you
feel
part of the action. Imagine what would have happened if they had been
dismissive or snotty! Would you have continued with the same enthusiasm
or
did a smile and a handshake make you feel like a million bucks?

Here's a tip - there's twenty operators out there in your community or
in
your logs that feel just the same about you! They're watching you off to
the
side at meetings. They're loitering around your run frequency after
making
the QSO, listening to you operate. Their ears burn with pride after they
put
your call in the log. They send QSLs and put yours on the wall. Don't be
surprised! We all have the QSLs of our heroes somewhere in our shack,
still.
I'm sure that you can still hear the echoes of a tip or bit of praise
from
them ringing in your ears.

Once upon a time, in response to a student's demand to be taught the
entire
Jewish Torah while standing on one leg, a sage gently replied: "What is
hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor...all the rest is
commentary."
Turned inside out, this becomes the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you
wish
other to do unto you." And here we start to get to the heart of the
question. The Haida people have a tradition of potlatch where a chief
establishes his reputation by giving away as much as possible. A great
chief
gives away more than any other.

What a contradiction! We work and work and work and work in pursuit of
coming out on top of the heap. Even once! Some of us never make it. Even
those that do make it to the top, work even harder to do it again. And
we're
supposed to turn around and give?

Yes. We all have many opportunities to make contesting (and by
extension,
ham radio) better. Sometimes, that means personal sacrifice. A
competitive
operation might be sacrificed in favor of a training opportunity. Have
you
ever sat with a new contester as they manage their first big run? It's
great
isn't it? Even if you know you could get a higher rate or pull more
calls
out on the first try. It's said, "Those that can't do, teach." Well,
those
that can do, teach, too, and they teach better than anybody else.

Contesting is a funny sport. We have to cooperate to make points. We win
by
cooperating better than the other guys. It consists of thousands of
little
interactions with other operators that you may never, ever see in
person.
Yet, a lot of the time, we cooperate in splendid isolation. Locked away
in
other basements or garages, we can make thousands of QSOs in a weekend,
but
it's difficult to be comfortable reaching out.

There's a lot of complaining today that ham radio "ain't what it used to
be"
and that maybe contesting isn't headed in the best direction. Who's
going to
fix it? Don't sit around waiting for your champions to fix it, because
you
are the champions. If operating standards aren't up to snuff, then you
have
the power to change it by example and by showing the way. If there's
something that needs to be fixed or created, you have the clout and
connections to get the ball rolling.

Outreach is THE challenge for contesting, BPL notwithstanding. If we
don't
replenish our ranks, ten years from now, only a third of us will remain
and
this room will be considerably grayer and emptier. For a group that can
make
electrons dance halfway around the world at the flick of a switch, we
have a
tough time sticking out our hands. But we have the examples of the Good
Ones
to show us that it doesn't have to be that way at all.

When I read the obits of our departed friends, a consistent theme runs
through them. They touched the lives of others. Many others. At W4AN's
funeral, hams came from hundreds of miles to pay their respects to Bill
and
his family. Not because he made 400 QSOs in the Sprint. Not because he
had a
big station. Because he made a difference in their lives by giving of
himself.

Do you remember that first feeling of actually belonging and getting the
hang of ham radio, even if just a little? There's nothing like that
first
late night bull session at Field Day with the unshaven older guys
drinking
that muddy coffee and telling the most amazing stories while the
generators
putter and throb in the night and the lights in the radio tents dim in
sync
with each dot, dash, and syllable. In our sweaty work duds through the
day
and then gathered around at night under the kitchen fly lantern wearing
old
camp jackets, the distinctions between Old Timer and newcomer fray and
dissolve.

Listen for that little voice that says, "Here's your chance!" There is
nothing, not even a double mult at sunrise on 160, not pushing the rate
meter to a 200 hour, like the payback from connecting with another and
seeing that light bulb come on. Savor the smile from the fellow with
that
2-by-3 call sign that worked up the nerve to come over and say, "Hi!"
These
are the things that make life worth all the trouble it causes.

"What could be more interesting, or in the end, more ecstatic, than in
those
rare moments when you see someone look at something you've made, and
realize
they got it exactly, that your heart jumped to their heart with nothing
in
between." Robert Motherwell