WARNING - LONG Re: [RTTY] Dayton RTTY Forum set.....
ak0a
ak0a@kc.rr.com
Mon, 25 Mar 2002 07:44:57 -0600
I offered to show my slides of the TI9M dx-pedition but only used one Radio
and since this is a 2 Radio show, I didn't qualify. OH well.
----- Original Message -----
From: "WA9ALS - John" <wa9als@starband.net>
To: "Frank J Fallon" <n2ff@juno.com>; "Tom Moore" <wx4tm@mindspring.com>;
"Bill Turner" <w7ti@dslextreme.com>
Cc: "SMC" <smc@qth.com>; <RTTY@contesting.com>
Sent: Monday, March 25, 2002 12:07 AM
Subject: WARNING - LONG Re: [RTTY] Dayton RTTY Forum set.....
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bill Turner" <w7ti@dslextreme.com>
> To: "Tom Moore" <wx4tm@mindspring.com>; "Frank J Fallon" <n2ff@juno.com>
> Cc: <RTTY@contesting.com>
> Sent: Sunday, March 24, 2002 8:01 PM
> Subject: Re: [RTTY] Dayton RTTY Forum set.....
>
>
> > What's amazing to me is the number of two-radio guys who refuse to
> > compete only against each other. It's like a guy with an Indy car who
> > insists on racing against the family sedan. Any class of racing can be
> > fun, but only when the playing field is reasonably level and the winners
> > and losers are not predetermined..
>
> Meant directly, or just indirectly, this feels like it has my name on it.
> When Frank asked me to be on the "SO2R panel" at the forum, I hesitated
> because:
>
> 1. I don't consider myself in the same contesting leagues as AA5AU and
> K3MM.
> 2. I don't like being/speaking in the "public eye" that well.
> 3. I'm not sure I want to play the dunce role - er, neophyte.
> 4. I KNEW THAT THE WHOLE SO2R ARGUMENTS WOULD SURFACE AGAIN WITH THAT
> TITLE!
>
> We all know that level playing fields are a bunch of crap. Amps, towers,
> antenna farms (literally), geographic location, whatever - Number of
radios
> is just one variable. http://www.contesting.com/survey/70 Three years
ago
> I didn't know RTTY contesting from squat. My XYL got me the WF1B program
> for Christmas, and I was hooked with my first RTTY Roundup. After a few
> with that, I got WriteLog and found many new challenges. I improved my
> station quite a bit over the next three years, mainly with a single tower
> and tribander, and later adding a vertical.
>
> I think that there are 2 types of approaches to contesting out there. One
> is to just sit back and never strive to improve anything except maybe
> operating time or technique. If that's all you can do, that's fine.
> However, it's reasonable to expect others that are able to try and do
> anything within the rules to improve their contest FUN and performance.
> Being naive to this whole subject, I mistakenly thought that the
"approved"
> improvement pathway included a second radio.
>
> Perhaps like some SO2R critics that have never tried it, I thought maybe
> SO2R was sort of a huge improvement. "Heck, think of all those stations I
> could work if I had a second radio." Well, after trying it off an on for
> awhile now, I still haven't improved my score using that "avantage". In
the
> recent BARTG, I made a huge improvement in my personal best, from 600 or
so
> max QSOs previously to over 900. Yes, I had a second radio hooked up, and
I
> made a few QSOs with it - 14 to be exact. Yes, I feel comfortable
operating
> in the SOAB category with guys with 1 radio. Anyone with one radio could
> have done those extra 14 QSOs that I got, just by QSYing to a different
> band/frequency and working a mult. Or maybe they have a radio with 2
> receivers - what the heck category is that anyway? No, I didn't want to
> enter SOE and compete head to head with Don et al. However, I might have
to
> next year when the BARTG rules require the top ten to enter SOE. Seems
like
> that should appease the critics, more or less.
>
> I thought the whole idea of the forum was to help new and old guys that
> might want to try SO2R. My role was to have been to tell how it doesn't
> have to be expensive or complicated, help explain some of the challenges,
> and vouch for how SO2R can add to your contesting -FUN-, if not to your
> score. However, I STILL REMEMBER the email threads that followed the last
> time this subject came up at the RTTY forum, and I warned Frank about
> reaction to the SO2R subject matter for the forum.
>
> Sorry Frank, I knew this was coming. Although a few emails does not an
> audience make, the debate and forum are just not worth it to me. Dayton
is
> suppose to be fun (like contesting). The SO2R debate goes nowhere and
> detracts from the hobby/mode. Who wants to be on a panel to try and
> encourage people if they don't want to be encouraged? I think I'd rather
> just walk around outside, eat a few hotdogs, and get fat. 73 - Indy car
> that loses to sedans most of the time!
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> John - WA9ALS - VP5RY (2001)
>
> VP5 photos: http://www.qsl.net/wa9als/vp5photos.htm
> email: wa9als@starband.net
> homepage: http://www.qsl.net/wa9als
> logbook: http://www.qsl.net/wa9als/search.htm
>
>
>
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