[VHFcontesting] Serious and non-serious categories in VHF contesting

[alex at kr1st.com]

Amateur radio contests, and VHF contests more so than HF contests, are 
inherently unfair in that a multiplier is applied to every single QSO 
and not just the QSO for which the multiplier was earned. It's downright 
silly when you think of it for more than ten seconds. Why would a 
previous contact become more valuable because of a subsequent contact? 
That like saying in basketball that when you score a three-pointer all 
previous and future(!) scores get multiplied, even though you didn't 
have to do anything extra for them.

Someone with limited antennas in a hamradio active area can rack up a 
lot of QSO's but if that person's reach is only two grids then that 
person achieves a very low score compared to someone who makes the same 
number of QSO's, or less even, but happens to be able to score a handful 
of multipliers. That is not what a fair competition should look like. 
Multipliers, as they are currently applied, are just plain stupid. 
There, I said it. :)

Now folks are complaining about the digital modes and are trying to come 
up with ways to force a change of behavior in others, oddly enough (or 
perhaps not), affecting mostly those who are already at a disadvantage 
because of the current rules. And look who's complaining the loudest. 
Exactly, the folks to which the rules already hands an advantage.

If you think that digital modes don't have a place in the current 
contest or its operation needs to be somehow curtailed, then give it its 
own contest. Then watch the traditional contest slowly die of 
participation.

Perhaps we need three categories, serious, non-serious, and one for 
those who take themselves too serious. ;) And while we're at it, let's 
not call hamradio contest a "sport" either. It's just as much of a sport 
as a hotdog eating contest. :)

73,
--Alex KR1ST