[RTTY] CQ-Contest SO2R

[Jay Kloss]

So you are suggesting, Joe, with the opening line "Not again", that
yours is the only opinion that has merit?  That with your implied
eye-roll you presume to end a friendly debate among good friends? I'm
sorry if the subject irritates you, but I am still interested in what
others have to say on the matter. Maybe I missed out on last year's
debate. Perhaps you should just sit back and chuckle and chalk this up
up to "those wacky youngsters!"

Your argument suggests that this debate is about wanting to "limit the
tools available to the operator". It is certainly not my point, and I
can't find a posting that outright suggests that SO2R not be allowed
under any circumstances. Some people might feel this way. But isn't it
more likely that they are trying to say, "How about setting up a
distinct category of operation that promotes and highlights the skill
of these great operators? A category that _they_ would choose to
compete in."

You also have suggested that SO2R is just another tool and equivalent
to having a "voice keyer, memory keyer, Digital Voice keyer, computer
logging". I would submit that SO2R is mostly skill.  I've heard it
explained like this: "SO2R is like that creepy organ music tune you
always hear some creepy guy playing in the creepy haunted house -- the
"Toccata Fugue". There is a part in that tune where you are playing a
triplet (three notes over and over again) on one hand, while at the
same time alternating two notes on the other. SO2R is like _that_."
Try it. Go 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3 on one hand while doing 1-2, 1-2, 1-2
on the other. Just like patting your head and rubbing your belly with
the other. Skill, talent, whatever you want to call it. In SO2R the
2nd radio is certainly a tool. But the SO is the skill.

Speaking of tools, the examples you cite as tools ("voice keyer,
memory keyer, and Digital voice keyer") are all the same thing
performing the same function one way or another. Distilled, your two
examples are "an automatic keyer" of some kind, and "computer
logging". Anyone running N1MM or Writelog have these features
available to them. And in fact, most of the "computer logging"
software you mention is capable of performing these functions. Anyone
still running a Model 15? Got a paper log? Hardly. In these areas the
playing field is rather level without much expense or effort. But I
agree that these things are tools. However, I maintain that running
SO2R largely requires most excellent skills on the part of the
operator.

You also used the NFL football analogy, saying in essence that we are
all in one Big League, and all at the same level of fitness, age, and
human ability. I was a 225 pound linebacker on a state championship
team and gave many a quarterback a nice big bear-hug and helped him
attach turf-grass to his face-mask. Should my skill-set be compared to
the Pee-Wees? Do I want them to?  In fact, you say, "you might as well
start imposing /height/weight/speed/strength restrictions on those who
play in the NFL." But we aren't in the NFL. We _are_ in the Pee-Wee's,
Gray-Y, Highschool, college, AND the NFL, all at the same time.

You also say that you are certain that "...they don't care who their
competition is - ". I can assure you from my first-hand acquaintance
with a number of amazing hardcore, big-bat-swinging contest-smashing,
SO2R-ing ACG and SECC dogs that they do indeed know who their
competition is -- because they have risen to that level of skill. They
win contests, and heartily call for a worthy opponent.

Let me again adopt the tone of my first note on this subject, and see
if I can convey my abject appreciation at how great the SO2R guys are
for using their skills to achieve such amazing heights of contesting
excellence by asking, "Wouldn't it be great if there was a special
distinction, a notable partitioning of our most skilled
radio-athletes, a lofty bar set high and apart for the likes of our
greatest champions, upon which they would test themselves amongst each
other, to their satisfaction, and our wonder?"

Perhaps they themselves will call for a category worthy of their
fellow SO2R opponents.

73 de Jay, N4CBK
Auburn, AL.
Alabama Contest Group