[RTTY] Rate killer/QRP

[Ed Muns]

Catching snippets of this thread while traveling home today has been
frustrating.  Here's my take.

Contesting is unique in that it is a team sport with your competitors.  For
each QSO two "competitors" form a team for a few seconds to accomplish a
valid QSO that each can log and presumably get competitive credit for.
Thus, we must cooperate with each other, even though we are overall
competitors.

However, a large portion of the stations we work in a contest could care
less about the competition.  They are simply there because of the tremendous
activity contests create.  They may be chasing an award.  They may be simply
enjoying operating their station since there is little RTTY activity outside
of contests and Dxpeditions.  These casual folks need us for their hobby
fulfillment and we need them in our logs.

QRP is not a plague.  It just happens to be another interest niche in our
great hobby.  Again, they are doing contesters a favor by working us.  Hard
to copy?  Yes, sure, sometimes, but so are DX stations on the other side of
the world.  My view of QRP is that those stations offer me a chance to
improve my game.  Better decoding, better weak signal capability so that I
can better work those DX stations on the other side of the world who are
also buried in noise.

(BTW, QRP does not have to be synonomous with crummy signals.  KR2Q, K6UFO
and many others contest QRP with serious antenna farms.  Ten or more years
ago I operated a single-band QRP entry on 40m from Jamaica in the CQ WW CW
contest.  I set a new 40m QRP world record (that has since been broken)
using a pair of two-element verticals literally in the surf on the north
side of the island.  I was able to hold a run frequency due to the
tremendous antenna gain of saltwater verticals.  In the first hour of the
contest, several European stations tried take my frequency.  I dug in and
they ended up QSYing.)

If we eliminated the QRPers, the brag tape folks, the newbies, the long
exchanges, etc. there would be far less of us left to work each other.  I'd
like to see us be more inclusive and less exclusive.  The more we encourage
all interest niches to join our contesting activity the better for all of
us.  It's a win-win.  And, if these folks feel welcome and have a good time,
they'll be back.  Then, if they come back often enough, they'll start
picking up our techniques and short, snappy exchanges.  Then, we'll have
less to complain about.  Moreover, complaining here is futile because we're
just preaching to each other--none of our perceived offenders are subscribed
to this reflector.

So, for my part I intend to continue (1) welcoming all participants, and (2)
improving my own operating behaviour to set a good example for others to
emulate.

Ed W0YK