[TenTec] Choice of Rigs for Contests

[John Rippey]

I can imagine a bunch of reasons why most "big guns" use FT-1000MPs, which 
admittedly will be eligible for display at the Smithsonian as museum 
artifacts before long. And the main reason has nothing to do with 
performance. It's familiarity. These folks depend on a bunch of volunteer 
ops descending on their QTH for a weekend of work/play. The only rigs the 
various ops know by heart are those MPs. If a contest station suddenly 
presented these volunteers with a bunch of nifty new software-driven rigs 
to play with, there would be pandemonium as they tried to learn it in a few 
hours/minutes. So I think, oddly, the last people to switch over to 
superior, modern equipment like the ORION or the forthcoming IC-7800 will 
be these "big guns."

The lucky contesters are the single ops who can take the time to learn how 
to take advantage of what software-driven radios can do for them. Meantime, 
Yaesu and the "big guns" seem caught in a time warp.

By the way, has anyone noticed that QST has hired a new tech editor and 
made him responsible for QST rig reviews, and that his main rig at home 
appears to be an OMNI VI? He also operates mainly CW. Miracles never cease 
(I'm talking about the CW preference).

73,
John, W3ULS