[RTTY] Not to beat the ANTENNA OVERKILL horse...

[Ron Stailey]

Hi All, it's been a while since I have posted anything on the RTTY
reflector. 

I have seen this argument for many years and figured I would make this post
just 

for fun. When I was very active in RTTY contesting as AB5KD and present call

K5DJ, I used to think all the fairness we argued about was a bunch of
nonsense.

Just get in there and do the best you can and be happy with it..

 

Well now that I have been out of the contesting race for a while and can set


back and look at what I think it fair and not fair I have a little different


opinion. What Bill and a few others say it true. Maybe a write antenna
category

is needed. Also what Barry says is true, life isn't always fair and just do
the 

best you can and be happy with it.  This is one way to look at it and what
we 

have done for many years. Just argue about it, nothing else happens...

 

Ok, if we did open a wire antenna category, human nature is still going to
be in 

play. That I assure you.  Lets say we do have a wire category that we can
use 

next month for a major contest (Contest X we will call it.) I don't have any


antennas up at the moment, I do have towers up. So I decide to enter the new
wire

antenna category. I build several beam wire antennas. Or go to the ranch
where 

there are many towers and can really put up some wire antennas and get them
down 

after the test very easily. Some beam wire antennas can work really well, I
have 

used some at real big SSB and CW stations. Now what will happen if I
dominate this 

category. I send in Pix showing I didn't use any beams just wire antennas. 

 

What will happen next???

 

I would suspect comments a new category for NO towers can be used, or only
one tower

can be used. 

 

Human nature will find an advantage if you look for it in any category.
There are miles 

of wire at the ranch for building new wire antennas. We have talked about
putting up a 

balloon antenna at the ranch for 160m contest for years. We can use rope
anchors in

three directions so it can't blow down to water level and stay straight up
in the air.

We can get weather balloons very easy and not very expensive, we have
checked into that

already. 

If a new category came up with only one wire antenna and only one tower,
well what can 

Human nature come up with? 

 

For the next RTTY contest with the new rules, I put up two balloons with a
wire beam 

antenna with not towers. I assure you it wouldn't be that hard with only 5
people to help 

build it. I would have a big advantage in the wire new one wire antenna
category at 199'. 

 

What's the answer to this???  I don't have the foggiest idea. But what ever
you do or come

up with, human nature and the what advantage can I get will be in play...

 

I hope you see what I'm getting at. I'm not making any future plans for a
new wire antenna

category. But someone will, and most likely with better plan then what I
have written above..

 

  73, de Ron K5DJ

====================

 

 

------------ REPLY SEPARATOR ------------

 

No need for the insults, Barry.

 

We are not whiners and we are fully grown up, and yes, we know life isn't
always fair. However, that doesn't mean that unfairness should be encouraged
or rewarded. 

 

No one is asking for a guaranteed win, only for competition on an equal
basis, as much as possible. Of course stations will never be exactly equal
and we realize that, but in the past new categories have been created when
it became apparent that some kinds of operation had significant advantages:
HP vs LP, MO vs SO, assisted vs unassisted. We feel the same applies to SO1R
vs SO2R and the time has come to recognize the fact.

 

Don, AA5AU, has been quoted as saying SO2R has a score advantage of about
40% or so. Don't you think that is significant? I do.

 

Bill, W6WRT