[TenTec] Contests (was OMNI-VI Plus features lost...)

Jim Knopf knopf@emeraldnet.net
Thu, 30 Sep 1999 07:29:46 -0700


I guess I would rephrase the suggestion as follows:

As for contests, why not reserve 50KHz on each band (SSB) and maybe 15kHz
(CW) so that those that choose TO participate in these contests can have
somewhere to go.

Jim  KI7Q

----- Original Message -----
From: Beamer, Jay <JBeamer@PanAmSat.com>
To: 'Peter A. Klein' <pklein@2alpha.net>; <tentec@contesting.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 30, 1999 7:13 AM
Subject: RE: [TenTec] Contests (was OMNI-VI Plus features lost...)



Hello All,

As for contests, why not reserve 50KHz on each band (SSB) and maybe 15kHz
(CW) so that those that choose not to participate in these contests can have
somewhere to go. Just a thought!

Jay/KM6VX
Torrance, Ca.

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter A. Klein [mailto:pklein@2alpha.net]
Sent: Thursday, September 30, 1999 12:36 AM
To: tentec@contesting.com
Subject: [TenTec] Contests (was OMNI-VI Plus features lost...)



>>Carl Hyde spake saying:
>>
>>"Lets talk about contesters. Hmmmm they sit at a radio
>>and call cq, exchange call letters and a signal report
>>and go on to the next cq.  Whats the point?"

Duane AC5AA continued:

>Well, for this DXer, it means an opportunity to cherry pick some new
countries
>with (usually) much smaller pileups than outside the contest....[snip]
>Sometimes you can make lemonade out of those lemons.

I agree with both of you.  On one level, my attitude is "Bah, contests,
humbug!"  On another level, it's what a lot of people like to do.  It
creates band occupancy that supposedly justifies our existence, so the FCC
won't take our HF bands away <sarcasm mode on> and give them to the
cellular companies, the little LEOs, or the spread spectrum broadband data
network startups.  It keeps the ultra-competitive types off the highways on
weekends, thereby decreasing the amount of road rage... <sarcasm mode off>

Regardless, contests are here, and we aren't going to change that.  So
we've got several choices:

1.  Give up, QRT, and bitch about it.
2.  QRT and do something else you enjoy.
3.  Go to a different mode.  If it's a CW contest, do digital or SSB.
4.  Head for the WARC bands.  They're the nuclear-free zones of ham radio.
5.  If you can't beat 'em, join em.  But do it for your own purposes.  Use
contests to work new countries, states, counties, grid squares, or call
signs that can form anagrams of your significant others' name.  Whatever
floats your boat.   Or just play God, bestowing points upon those you deem
deserving.  Go have a tall cool one when the adrenaline level gets too
high.  Pull out your copy of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream, and
paraphrase Puck:  "Lord, what fools these contesters be!"

I have done most of the above at one time or another.

Seriously, though, some of these contesters are crackerjack operators.  I
admire and envy their skill level.  I'd just rather devote my skills to
being a good conversationalist first and a decent DXer second.

73 from KD7MW,

--- Peter
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/ b b ,| ,| ,| ,|  ,| ,|  '  ,|   | ,|   |__|__|__|   |__|   |  |   |  |
                                ~'                            =========


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