[UK-CONTEST] Cabrillo & all that Jazz

[John]

Hi Folks

I have sat day after day reading the various comments be they good, bad, or
indifferent and still cannot for the life of me understand what the fuss is
all about. It is a well known fact of life that no software is 100%  proof
against allcomers. Given that multi-op networking has only in the very
recent past become almost viable,  that file manipulation software is a very
recent addition, and generally speaking both operators and logging software
has got "slicker" at a rate that being honest few would have dared predict a
few years ago are we being fair to those very able bodies trying their best
to satify all our demands ?

Equally demanding are those few of us (me included) who want to see results
faster and faster with operating rates going higher and higher each year all
at the bottom line driven by technology be it hardware or software. Things
can only get better given the new formats which are required if checking and
error reporting are to be carried out by as Don (G3XTT) noted  a bunch of
part time volunteers who do have normal lives and are in the main keen
contesters or HF Operators. Like Don I have more free time these days having
reached senior citizen heights but there is a limit to how my free time is
spent when it comes to radio activities in the widest sense. Helping to
adjudicate the IOTA Logs paper not disk I might add is a nightmare. However
in the past couple of years as electronic entries have increased, log
checking software has been partly introduced even I can see a big difference
but it does require lots of patience and I suspect there are a few out there
who are short on this commodity.

Like Don I was critical of many things carried out recently in the
contesting arena but fudge , fudge is not the way to rebuild and drag it
into the year 2003. I have made my views known to the members of the HFCC (I
don't need to repeat them here as if they read this they will know who they
are) and I still believe that the few of us who use this medium are perhaps
the extreme end of the contesting spectrum. For each of us there are a large
group of middle of the road contesters who make up the fodder for the rest
to feed on. Without them we ain't got a contest to play. It is funny but as
rates go up , software makes it easier, the general level of interest goes
down except for those who have to compete at maximum intensity. Not sure how
many listened to the recent 160m SSB Contest but I for one won't be there
next year.

Judging from Don's  remarks about K1EA et al bringing software into line I
do wonder if anybody up to that point ever asked or pointed out the
problems. My only comment on WL is that I purchased a copy in December to
play with and  that it is a whole bundle of good, bad, and perhaps even ugly
bits and bobs but as each day goes by I understand more about it but at this
early stage (3-months) I have used it once in anger. I did hope it would
replace the N1MM Logger which also needs a 21" Monitor or as observed
recently  2-Monitors. One for logging and one for information.

Like Bob (AGN) I am also a 2.5 finger typist but I do get regular practice
outside radio so I have learnt to type in the dark so to speak using 2.5
fingers on each hand.

That is my sixpennyworth and can we forget about Cabrillo or at least shelve
the discussion till we get further down the line?  Off to set up SDC for
BERU if I can have some time off to at least make an entry and I get a 40m
antenna sorted. I had a brain storm this week being lazy I converted my 90ft
vertical to a 5/8 on 40m now after 4-years I have found how many UK stations
operate 40m ! Quick change BERU to allow UK>UK QSO's. Just might have to
raise the elevated 40m ground plane.

73 John