[UK-CONTEST] April 2007 Radcom letters

[G3SXW]

Yes, Chris, of course we agree. But you left one of the most important 
points off your list: contesting brings many newcomers to the hobby.

But I do NOT suggest that you send your reply to RadCom - this would merely 
prolong a debate which has been sterile for some years. There are a tiny 
number of vociferous, bigoted nay-sayers out there like GI4OWA whose letters 
appear regularly, saying the same, boring old thing. RadCom should simply 
ignore them - they have had their say and they have lost the argument. 
Anyway, we do not need to defend something which is patently so enormously 
good for amateur radio.

We should expect RSGB not to print controversial letters simply because they 
are controversial. This is not a soap-opera. The RadCom audience is bored 
with the anti-Contest brigade. If they want to leave the hobby their tiny 
numbers would not be missed and the hobby would not suffer. If contesting 
were curtailed the hobby would suffer hugely, possibly mortally. The logic 
is inescapable: the 'problem' is that tens of thousands take part in 
contests. Which democratic system allows a handful of extremists to 
influence the majority?
73 de Roger/G3SXW.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris Tran" <zl1ct at gm7v.com>
To: <uk-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2007 6:57 PM
Subject: [UK-CONTEST] April 2007 Radcom letters


> Hello all
>
> April 2007 Radcom - I am disappointed to see that 3 out of 9 letters in 
> 'The
> Last Word - Letters' are what I would consider 'anti-contest'.  The 
> general
> attacks on Don G3XTT's calm and reasoned arguments are sad - also there
> seems to be a measure of interpretation of what has been written to suit 
> the
> correspondent's point of view.
>
> I have very little sympathy for those who can't seem to make the slightest
> effort to have QSOs other than on empty bands. Their attitude seems to be
> that all contests are a disruption and that contesters are deliberately
> clogging the bands up with worthless QSOs.  The reality is that in 2007 :-
> 1. Contesters are the most motivated group in amateur radio
> 2. Contesters have to have a high degree of technical expertise to be
> successful
> 3. Contesting has spawned many recent technical developments
> 4. Contesters are constantly self-evaluating and improving their 
> operating,
> equipment and antennas
> 5. Contesters will persevere with operating under poor propagation
> conditions, QRM, etc.
> 6. A good contest station makes day-to-day DXing easy
>
> How many of the above qualities do these correspondents to Radcom have ?
>
> 73
> Chris    GM3WOJ
>
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