On what basis do you claim that the ones who do that are "newer" hams?
And calling stations that aren't being heard is hardly limited to
stations that have been spotted. That happened all the time even before
clusters just because there was a pileup.
Clusters may contribute to poor operating practices by those who abuse
them, but the same can be said for many other things as well. I just
think that those who jump on the spotting networks as being the root of
all evil are letting their biases choose the easiest target. Or, like
you just did, extrapolate an observation into a generality.
Dave AB7E
On 2/28/2011 12:17 PM, John Geiger wrote:
> But clusters do lead to some of the bad behavior, like calling a DX
> station you can't hear just because he was spotted on the cluster. I
> do think they have reduced the listening skills of many newer hams.
> 73s John AA5JG
>
> On Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 12:51 PM, David Gilbert
> <xdavid@cis-broadband.com <mailto:xdavid@cis-broadband.com>> wrote:
>
>
> Frighteningly enough I often agree with with Mal, but I'm afraid I
> can't do so this time.
>
> I don't think that reliance on clusters has anything to do with
> any "generation" of contesters. I'd bet my rig that there are
> just as many old timers who now predominantly use clusters instead
> of manually searching the bands as there are newer hams. And I'd
> bet that it has rather little to do with being "lazy" and more to
> do with the time that people are willing to spend in a contest or
> chasing DX. Check out the statistics on the number of hours the
> majority of hams spend in any contest ... it isn't a very high
> percentage of the total contest period. Check out the percentage
> of contest participants who submit a log ... I'd be surprised if
> it typically exceeds 10%. Spotting clusters bypass a skill that
> used to be part and parcel of operating an amateur radio station,
> but so does using a memory keyer or buying a commercial antenna or
> any number of other things I could come up with.
>
> Personally, I can think of other lost arts in our hobby that would
> concern me much more than how well someone can find another
> station. What about how to time a call in a pileup, or adjust
> your rig to put out a clean signal, or make a crisp contact in a
> contest, or have the least little bit understanding of
> propagation? People who want to shut down the spotting tools seem
> to think that they're the worst things going on in our hobby, but
> they aren't. They're merely some of the most popular, most
> visible, and easiest to identify a "solution" for.
>
> Clusters aren't ruining our hobby ... bad behavior, stodginess,
> and intolerance is.
>
> Dave AB7E
>
>
>
>
> On 2/28/2011 7:30 AM, N7mal wrote:
>
> I don't often, if ever, agree with Hans, K0HB, but this time
> he has hit the
> nail on the head.
> More than 20 years ago I was an early packet-cluster sysop.
> That means there
> is a whole generation of hams who know nothing but the
> clusters. Then
> there's another generation of hams who have just become
> 'flat-out' lazy in
> their contesting and DXing efforts. They have completely
> forgotten the term
> S&P. If their local cluster goes down they hyperventilate. No
> I'm not
> nostalgic for the good 'ole' days because I'm connected to
> VE7CC 24/7. I
> also don't think turning off technology will mean the end of
> ham radio.
> Put me down as 100% in............
> 73
>
>
> MAL
> N7MAL
> BULLHEAD CITY, AZ
> http://www.n7mal.com <http://www.n7mal.com/>
> Everyone in the world is
> entitled to be burdened
> by my opinion
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> Subject: [CQ-Contest] Just one weekend
>
>
> Let’s pick one summer weekend in 2012, when no DXpedition is
> planned and
> no significant international contest is scheduled. Maybe the
> second weekend
> of August.
>
> On that weekend, let’s turn off all the DX packet clusters,
> all the
> internet spotting networks, all the skimmers, all the RBN’s,
> and just play
> “a boy and his radio†.
>
> Just one weekend, 18 months from now.
>
> Talk it up. Pass it on.
>
> 73, de Hans, K0HB/K7
>
>
>
>
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