[UK-CONTEST] RadCom letters

[David Ferrington, M0XDF]

Let me try to present the opposite perspective then - I'm not a big contester (mostly UKAC and VHFFD), but I'm not a big Ragchewer or DXer either - I just try to get on sometimes and enjoy.

From the non-contesters point of view, there are very many contests, you may think there aren’t enough, but the non-contesters don't think that way. Some of these radio amateurs may only have a rig for one or two bands, so WARC may not be an option, and before you say - "well get a multi-band rig", perhaps they can't afford to or particularly like the band they are on - or perhaps they are limited for antenna space etc. etc. 

For whatever reasons they aren’t moving, and I agree, they could try turning the dial - but on some contest weekends, there is no-where to turn - the contest really does take over the band. The issue for the non-contesters is that Ragchewing and DXing don't take over the band, so they may feel it's all one sided.

Imagine how you would feel if ragchewing was capable of preventing you being able to operate in a contest because the entire band was full of ragchewers and there was no-where to call - I think you'd be pretty feed up too!

Contesters are seen as the bain of non-contesters lives - quite often only at the weekend (as someone wrote, the only time they can get on the air). To them we are as bad as PLT or that Plasma TV next door.

Now I'm sure some of you understand the RFI feeling - that's how some of these non-contesters feel about contesters.


This isn't true about the vast majority of non-contesters, I know plenty that accept there are other sides to the hobby and don't get upset about the contest - they just avoid them or work at different times, but as is often the case, it's the minority that appear to be be heard - the rest of us just get on with it.


does that to understand or am I just muddling the waters?

73 de M0XDF
On 23 Jul 2011, at 09:06, Chris Tran GM3WOJ wrote:

> Hello Dave / Jim et al
> 
> Well there are no contests this weekend so I've time to write a letter to
> Elaine.
> 
> I've tried but failed to see our contesting activities from the complainers
> perspective. To me contesting is a great way of keeping sharp
> operating-wise, overcoming interesting technical issues and keeping up band
> occupancy. If you have an otherwise busy life, it crams a lot of QSOs into a
> short time.
> 
> Whatever the complaining RSGB members think, they are never going to
> influence anyone internationally - if we remove an RSGB contest from the
> calendar another larger contest will grab that empty weekend.