[TenTec] TenTec Digest, Vol 50, Issue 27

[Duane - N9DG]

--- "Rick, NJ0IP / DJ0IP" <Rick at DJ0IP.de> wrote:

> Guys, it depends on whether you do the contest just for
> fun, or to seriously
> try to win or at least make as many points as possible to
> contribute to your club's total points.

Yepp, or as I like to think of it, "serious fun".

 
> Almost all of us thought like that before we ran our first
> contest with
> computer and without using the key.  The bottom line is,
> without the
> computer, you will not make half as many points as with it.

And in the case of a contest where you don't have piles and
piles of stations to wade through then you better have a
means to keep tabs on some pretty expansive chunks of
spectrum between CQ calls. It does make a difference score
wise. An example is pandapters and VHF, once you've run a VHF
contest with one you will be less likely to want to run a VHF
contest again without one.

 
> So I run all important contests "the new way", but at least
> once or twice a
> year I take an old analog transceiver and keyer with no
> memory and run a contest without a computer - just for fun.

And the even newer way extends beyond just "controlling" the
radio with a computer but is instead tightly integrating them
together. BTW the Pegasus was the launching point that
started me seeking this end goal.


> So we do indeed understand why you do what you do.  We do
> what we do because
> we want to win the contest or at least maximize our points.

What is not clear to me however is if those who detest
computers being integrated with radio actually understand
what those of us who do, are actually doing with them. I
suspect not in many cases. And for the record in my case it
has nothing to do with trying to "automate" the QSO process
at all, - it is instead used to keep me busier making more
Q's.

For the record I work with software and computers all day at
work too. Saying that working with computers at work takes
the fun away for using them at home is like saying that using
electricity at work makes using electricity for your radio
less fun too, - nobody ever says that. In the end you are not
playing with computers instead of radio but you are instead
using computers to do what you want to do with radio. The
"computer" is in reality just the "means", not the "end".


> Different strokes for different folks, or as we say over
> here in EU, "it's horses for courses".

That's what is so great about ham radio there are so many
nuances to it, there's just no excuse for getting board.

Duane
N9DG



 
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