[UK-CONTEST] Attitudes to SSB and CW contesting

[G3SJJ]

I tend to go along with the views expressed. I find CW Contests easier to
handle, however I do support SSB Contests and have tried to improve my
skills over the last few years. What I don't support are poor operating
standards and, even more so in SSB contests, poor signal quality.

I think Chris makes a valid point, in that whilst we all have our
favourites, often negative views are expressed against the ones we aren't
interested in. Club Calls Contest is very good for generating club interest,
even though I do cringe at some of the operating but I still join in. I am
aware that many people view this one as a No-Go. Likewise SSB Field Day, if
we could get the powers that be to forget their inhibitions and publish
operator numbers, we would probably find that participants in SSB FD
outnumber those in CW FD by around 2:1. Yet much scorn is poured on SSB FD
and it is definitely regarded as "lower class."

Chris G3SJJ


-----Original Message-----
From: uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com]On Behalf Of Chris Tran ZL1CT
Sent: 18 March 2005 21:55
To: uk-contest at contesting.com
Subject: [UK-CONTEST] Attitudes to SSB and CW contesting


Saturday 19th March 2005

Hello all

This is something that's been on my mind for quite a few years, but I've
never seen it discussed on either the cq-contest reflector or here on the
uk-contest reflector. Many subscribers to the cq-contest reflector are prone
to immediately flaming any postings that don't suit their (narrow)
point-of-view so I thought I would post this here first and hopefully
stimulate some more thoughtful discussion. I'd like to quote from a personal
e-mail discussion that I've been having with 2 other UK contesters in the
past week or two - this is a lengthy quotation but outlines the concerns
very well :-

"I sometimes get the feeling that there is a rather snobbish view taken of
SSB contests amongst some of the UK and WW contesting fraternity, never mind
the view taken on contesting in general amongst some other parts of the ham
world in general. The subtle and almost subliminal denegration of SSB
contesting irritates me. I think this 'CW elitism' may actually do harm to
contesting.

Any young contester coming along these days is likely (statistically
speaking) to find CW quite tough and CW contests in particular. If the part
of contesting they can more easily get right into...SSB...is somehow put
down by some elder statesmen, there is a danger the newbies will not wish to
be seen/heard doing something which is 'inferior' and just go off and
operate data modes and the internet.

I fully appreciate that many do genuinely prefer CW, and that is absolutely
their right to chose but with some, and I really mean SOME and not all,
there is a feeling that SSB is not 'proper contesting'. Perhaps I am
paranoid but how often have we seen comments like ' xxx SSB contest coming
up (groan)' or comments by those who feel obliged to point out that while
they have or will take part in the SSB leg etc, they much prefer CW, as if
they are embarrassed to admit that they took part in an SSB contest. And the
worst ever was around last year's CQ WW events when one well-known US
contester came out with the memorable sign-off to a reflector
contribution...'we don't need no stinkin' microphones' (think that was what
was said anyway) "

I agree 100% with these sentiments - in my experience of many SSB and CW
contests, successful SSB contesting is every bit as demanding as successful
CW contesting. I also think that sign-offs like 'the SSB contest was OK, but
the real contest is at the end of next month' do more harm than good.

73
Chris
ZL1CT (GM3WOJ)



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