[SEDXC] Contest Scoring

[John Harden, D.M.D.]

I well remember the conflict between SSB & AM. The AM boys used to call
SSB "Donald Duck" as most of them had such poor receivers that they were
not able to tune in and hold a SSB signal. Of course many of the SSB
signals were homebrew and pretty sorry in terms of stability, carrier
suppression, etc.

I first heard a "good" SSB station over at K4RPK's station around 1960.
He had the Collins 75S-1/32S-1 combination. K4TEA & I were over at his
QTH in SW Atlanta. At that time the KWM-2 transceiver cost around
$1200.00!! Few could afford that. It was like buying a Ford or
Chevrolet.

I still prefer CW as I've been using it for 48 years. It's still the
MAINSTAY for DX even today. To me the digital modes are just a "toy"
like VHF and UHF. Amateur radio has many facets, and there is enough out
there to keep us all happy with our respective interests.

One interest I have is homebrewing equipment from scratch. At one time
most hams did a lot of it. Today hardly any do it. However, it's still a
viable alternative today as many of the chips available will replace a
whole chassis of yesteryear. The sky is the limit!!

73,

John, W4NU
(K4JAG 1959 to 1998)

-----Original Message-----
From: sedxc-bounces at contesting.com [mailto:sedxc-bounces at contesting.com]
On Behalf Of David Thompson
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2007 11:47 PM
To: sedxc at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [SEDXC] Contest Scoring

A dozen years ago I sat on an airplane near Colin Powell's son who was
then
FCC Chairman and next to a ham/engineer who had sold all his gear a few
years earlier.  The ham/engineer asked me if hams still used (in his
words)
antique modes such as CW, SSB, or RTTY.  When I said yes Mr. Powell
became
interested and soon I was outnumbered and outgunned.  Their argument
centered on amateur radio had always led in new modes.

We always talk about CW being able to get through when other modes
won't.
But PSK31 can get through when no signal is readable to the ear!  Plus
most
PSK31 users run low power or QRP.  The problem is that there are so many
variations of PSK and other digital modes (CW and RTTY are also digital)
that most of us are confused and find contacts are hard to make.  Plus I
mentioned PSK on one of the digital reflectors and I got blasted.
Reminds
me of the AM versus SSB of the late 1950's.

Steve Ford, WB8IMY QST Editor and Digital guru agrees that the tower of
Babel must be solved before we can make real progress.  Even digital
voice
has two different approaches..a home brew one and one pushed by
Manufacturer
AOR.

I wonder what the DOD/Military uses now that CW is banished?

As to scoring we have come full circle.  In the 1950's you ran low power
to
win the ARRL SS as phone carried a 1.5 mult and CW 1.25.  Plus in the
ARRL
DX you had quotas per country on CW but none on phone (then mostly AM).

The mode that has expanded rapidly is RTTY.  As N4ZZ tells me you get a
screen full of callers and you pick the one you want.  Sound like you
can
turn the receiver sound off and just use the keyboard!

I think ARRL wants to encourage CW which still requires much simpler
gear
(W7DRA enters the CQ WW 160 CW using a modified DX-20).  But as K4UEE
points
out you can make more Q's on SSB per hour.  But if N4ZZ is right maybe
RTTY
is the place to be.

just my two cents worth!
Dave K4JRB


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