[SECC] Club Competition

Wed Nov 11 21:28:03 EST 2020

Jeff, 

I’d have to agree with that assessment. John K4BAI is a huge asset to this club.

I guess my latter point in the posting missed the mark. The job of being accountable and cheerleading shouldn’t fall to Bill or John, but should be something all of us do.

And I don’t think the clubs exist because there’s a critical mass of serious contesters, I think the serious contesters exist because they are accountable to clubs.

And what do you consider “serious”? 

I love contesting. However, where I am in my life now I have a great deal of difficulty putting in full time efforts in a contest. I won’t go into those challenges in this message.

Even if someone is peripherally involved now, they might become more serious when their life circumstances change.

I’m going to take up the gauntlet and start some discussion threads about what I’ve been playing with at AA4LR. I encourage others to do the same.

> On Nov 11, 2020, at 12:05 AM, Jeff Clarke <ku8e at ku8e.com> wrote:
> 
> Bill,
> 
> Although W4AN was a good guy and encouraged activity I think since he passed away K4BAI has taken over that role and has done a pretty good job. I try to do that as well but unfortunately despite John and my cheer-leading it seems to have fallen on deaf ears. The only discussion on the reflector other than score reporting seems to be only when I occasionally bring up a subject. If you look at the reflector archives the majority of the posts are  from K4BAI. Not really sure why no one else wants to discuss contesting. I remember back when I first joined SECC  I made the suggestion about maybe have occasionally having in person meetings. That idea was shot down by many. If you're an internet based club like we are and have very little activity on the reflector and if your not willing to have an occasional in person meeting that's not good.
> 
> I think the real downfall of SECC started when there was a splintering of of SECC with other regional clubs forming around us. In our part of the county we don't seem to have enough serious contesters like the PVRC, FRC or FCG to have a big regional club. I'm afraid if someone else other than K4BAI doesn't step forward and volunteer to be club president that when he isn't around anymore as a cheerleader that the SECC will become irrelevant.
> 
> Jeff
> 
> 
> On 11/10/2020 07:51 PM, Bill Coleman wrote:
>> I don’t mean to be critical of either Kevan or Jeff here, but I just want to point something out.
>> 
>> Part of the problem with having activity in the SECC is that people are posting their activity to other groups.
>> 
>> You’d have more activity in the SECC if these other groups weren’t such a distraction.
>> 
>> I’ve been a member of the SECC since it’s inception. I think the club lost some of its momentum when Bill Fisher W4AN passed.
>> 
>> One thing Bill did was encourage people to operate. Didn’t have to be big scores, just makes some Qs. I think that’s what we need. A tail twister.
>> 
>> Another thing which might be helpful is to have more useful discussion on the reflector — which is, honestly, our clubhouse.
>> 
>> Any one doing anything interesting? Any station improvements? Contemplating any persona goals for upcoming contests?
>> 
>> Perhaps have some discussion about operating techniques, challenges, etc.
>> 
>> If we are having discussions, perhaps we’d be more accountable to each other.
>> 
>>> On Nov 10, 2020, at 3:01 PM, Kevan Nason <knason00 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Jeff,
>>> 
>>> Ed, K3DNE, is President of the SFCG and has been very interested in boosting activity of that group. Know it wasn't my place to do it, and hope you don't mind, but I took the liberty of forwarding this to him for his consideration even before the SECC group spoke up. Give him some time to think up some options too. We've talked about activity and I know he is open to and actively seeking ideas. I copied him in on this email too so you two have each other's email address.
>>> 
>>> As to SECC activity, that's why I now belong to both the SECC and SFCG -- and the unmentioned DDCC. If the SECC had been an active organization I wouldn't now be posting scores for the SFCG. John, K4BAI, and I talked about this years ago. I was very active in the club and post all the time. Not because I'm a know-it-all as some seem to think, but because I'm enthusiastic about contesting and love to share what I've learned and discovered about it with others. Usually it is stuff others taught me and experienced ops already know. But I digress... In my opinion, the SECC has been fading away for a long time. Hardly anyone seemed interested and anything other than a post of your score was a rarity. You couldn't drum up a conversation no matter how hard you tried. I asked myself what the point of a contest club is if there isn't any sharing of ideas. The spinoff and other regional groups you describe tell me I wasn't the only one that felt that way. Haven't told you, but I've been very happy you have started to rekindle things a bit Jeff. However, from my perspective it will be hard to put the "Jumping Ship" Genie back in the bottle and bring back those of us who have strayed. The new blood coming in might be the best focus for rejuvenation efforts. Just my opinion though and I've certainly been wrong many times in my life.
>>> 
>>> The DDCC is drawing talent from this region too. Their location diversity makes it harder for them to compete in an ARRL circle event though.
>>> 
>>> So, I guess to sum up I'd say targeted regional competitions are a great idea. Ed, K3DNE, has kicked around that thought too. Change needs cooperation and membership effort. Hope people step up. I did tell Ed that I thought maybe the SECC was a bit of a giant compared to the SECC. Not sure how competitive the SFCG would be. But we're getting (and growing) some good contesters and folks are beginning to improve their stations, so maybe something can be worked out. Regardless of how things go with the SFCG it is good to hear the SECC looking to shake things up for themselves. It's needed.
>>> 
>>> Kevan N4XL
>>> 
>>> On Tue, Nov 10, 2020 at 1:54 PM Jeff Clarke <ku8e at ku8e.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Back when I lived in Ohio I was a long time member (and president a
>>> couple times in the 1990's) of the Mad River Radio Club. Sometime in the
>>> 1980's the activity in the club was lacking and some disgruntled members
>>> formed the North Coast Contesters. Does this sound familiar? The same
>>> thing happened here when the Alabama Contest Group, Georgia Contest
>>> Group and Swamp Fox Contest Group were formed. The South East Contest
>>> Club is actually just a former shell of itself.  For those that are new
>>> the South East Contest Club won the Sweepstakes medium category club
>>> competition a couple times in the early 2000's.
>>> 
>>> See below the entries for each club submitted (posted on 3830) for 2020
>>> CW Sweepstakes : SECC -
>>> https://www.3830scores.com/currecscores.php?arg=JUccv3zbmyvqp
>>> 
>>>   GCG - https://www.3830scores.com/currecscores.php?arg=JUccv3zbmyvqp
>>> 
>>>   ACG - https://www.3830scores.com/currecscores.php?arg=JUccv3zbmyvqp
>>> 
>>> Swamp Fox - https://www.3830scores.com/currecscores.php?arg=JUccv3zbmyvqp
>>> 
>>> All though there were some big scores posted (especially in SECC and
>>> GCG) the activity by all these clubs was pretty underwhelming. I
>>> calculated if the SECC and GCG had submitted one club entry (as either
>>> GCG or SECC) we would've had 1,612,542 points for just CW weekend. If
>>> you add in what might happen in SSB weekend this could turn out to be a
>>> pretty good club score. If you look at
>>> https://contest-clubs.arrl.org/viewlists.php which lists all the
>>> eligible members for each club you will also find that there are many
>>> that still belong to the SECC and these other clubs with the exception
>>> of ACG. K4BAI is the only SECC member that still belongs to ACG and no
>>> one in Alabama is in SECC anymore.
>>> 
>>> Back to the Mad River Radio Club story...  After awhile the two clubs
>>> figured out they had different interests. The members of North Coast
>>> Contesters found they were more interested in DX contests while the MRRC
>>> was more into domestic contests. So they made a deal that members of
>>> both clubs would submit their DX contest results for NCC and domestic
>>> contest scores for MRRC. They continue to do this today. I'm wondering
>>> if there might be an interest in doing something similar here? Form the
>>> ARRL club list I found out I'm both of member of GCG in addition the
>>> SECC.  So what if we made a deal that dual members would say submit
>>> their scores for GCG and domestic contests for SECC? This doesn't have
>>> to be set in stone and can agreed on every year.  I don't think there is
>>> any animosity between members of these different clubs. Plus there are
>>> no rules that say you can't belong to more than one club.
>>> 
>>> I'm interesting in hearing some feedback.
>>> 
>>> Jeff KU8E
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> SECC at contesting.com
>>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/secc
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> SECC at contesting.com
>>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/secc
>> Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr at arrl.net
>> Web: http://boringhamradiopart.blogspot.com
>> Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
>>             -- Wilbur Wright, 1901
>> 
> 
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Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr at arrl.net
Web: http://boringhamradiopart.blogspot.com
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
            -- Wilbur Wright, 1901