[UK-CONTEST] Why contesting ?

[Chris Tran]

Hi all

Interesting discussion this - I know that Don and Colin will do a very good 
job defending our position as contesters within the R.S.G.B. and in the 
wider context.

It is worth considering why we are contesters at all - these are some of my 
personal reasons for favouring contesting :

1. When you have a family, time for our hobby is at a premium, so a contest 
squeezes a lot of 'radio' into a short time frame. (Our fastest DXCC was 11 
hours on 20m one year and you can generate 1000s of QSLs for your QSL 
manager in one weekend !)

2. I remember once joining a net shortly after being licensed in 1967 and 
have had to endure being on 2 'leests' for rare DX stations. Each to their 
own, but I do not enjoy 'nets' or 'lists'. If you listen to many of the 
regular nets, there are a lot of 'one-way' QSOs made and a lot of the 
discussion content is repetitive and boring (to me anyway)

3. Most people are competitive to some degree, so contesting is ideal for 
improving operating skills and techniques, even if it only to improve your 
score relative to a previous effort.

4. Contesters tend to be at the leading edge of technology (but you won't 
find many SDRs at contest stations, at the moment !) - they will go to 
extraordinary lengths and cost to make small improvements in equipment and 
antennas.

5. Contesters are *enthusiastic* about what they do - it's part of the fun 
battling QRM to make QSOs, not expecting our 'channel' to remain clear just 
in case we want to use it.  It is never dull in a contest - for example TM2Y 
arriving on your run frequency and after asking them politely to move, they 
tell you "we are a multi-op station and we will stay here until you get 
tired and QSY" - great fun.

Lastly, surely the increased occupancy of the bands can only be a good thing 
in declining sunspot years ?

73
Chris
GM3WOJ/ZL1CT
www.qsl.net/gm3woj