[VHFcontesting] re: Wouldn't it be cool if...

[Lee Hiers]

On 26 Feb 2004 at 10:20, John Barenys wrote:

> RIGHT ON... any mode that is not voice or CW should be
> automatically disallowed as they have no place in
> amateur radio.

Although the attempt at sarcasm is appreciated, you seem to have 
misunderstood.  I don't think WSJT, Ham-IM, etc. have no place in 
amateur radio.  Far from it.  I think they have no place in 
*contesting* - this is a VHF "contesting" forum.

I especially think the high-speed meteor stuff is fascinating because 
it explores otherwise undetectable long-distance propagation, which 
is cool.  The Ham-IM stuff is just boring - it's a software gee-whiz 
and does nothing to further the radio "art".  

Neither should be allowed in VHF contesting as I've known it over the 
past 27 years.  If someone wanted to do a WSJT-type mode only 
contest, that would be fine.  A Ham-IM contest wouldn't make much 
sense to me though...but hey if that's what you want to do...go 
ahead, but don't look for my call on your screen.

> Just because it is not something you would use in a
> contest, or day to day, there is no reason to condemn
> them to being a "fun toy". 

It's not a condemnation...nothing wrong with toys...a time and place 
for everything I say.   Hey, I've played with many, if not most, 
modes out there over the years, including WSJT.  Some are more 
interesting than others, but the only ones that involve real operator 
skill - detection and decoding of the signal by the human brain - are 
phone and CW (and the argument that one can use a machine to read CW 
is ridiculous - at least I've never seen a machine that could 
reliably read CW sent at varying speeds in high noise environments - 
humans do much better at copying CW than machines, especially under 
contest condx).

> Amateur radio to me is "playing" so I think that I
> will try to use as man fun toys as I can.  

That's exactly what I mean - why can you consider these gee-whizes 
toys and I can't?  

73 de Lee

-- 
Lee Hiers, AA4GA
Cornelia, Georgia