Tom, et al---
I guess I kind of think of contesting as a two tier sport. There
are the stations who are really pushing the envelope of technology
(and the operator skill it takes to take advantage of it, which is
itself not a trivial issue); and then there are the rest of us.
Your comment on the winner being the one who can pour the most
money into a station seems wrong to me on two counts. First of all,
managing technology toward some end (even if that end is breaking a
q record for 24 hours or something equally interesting but not
socially redeeming) is in itself a skill. And a valuable one I
might add. As you yourself said, the technology allows skills to be
honed to excellence. So what if it takes money...
which brings me to the second point... I don't feel left out
because I can't compete with the same resources as the ubiquitous
STX superstations. To feel so is a little like being a regional
Formula Ford race car driver and complaining because I don't have
the same resources as the guys running and driving Formula 1 teams.
It's a different league and I don't expect to play in their league.
So what if I never break 2,000,000 points or 4000 q's...
I'l take my one hundred watts, dipoles for three bands, and a
pretty good location and set out to compete with a reasonable
enemy, one where if I win, it's really meaningful (to me and to
them).
Remember that while Davids don't like going up against Goliath's,
the reverse is also true!
But do I think that there should be some kind of prohibition of
innovative uses of technology by the people who can afford the
money and the time? Hell no, that's the only way that there's a
real chance of the technology working its way down to my level of
knowledge and cost just like logging software, dupe checking, and
packet are now.
I say more power to them-- let them push the envelope, let them
discover new ways and new techniques as well as new technology.
That's the way the art gets advanced.
Internet concerns because it might provide a means of cheating?
What's the difference between that and the use of a data base or
for that matter the callbook to verify qso's and calls after the
final bell but before the log is submitted? In my mind there's no
difference because one is as easy to use as the other once your
mind is made up. But, just because the potential for misuse is
there is no reason to prohibit the use in the first place (The idea
sounds a little Luddite to me).
Fan the flames-----
de Bill, W1HIJ
>From: WYLIE@colloquium.co.uk (Tom Wylie)
>Sender: owner-cq-contest@tgv.com
>To: cq-contest@tgv.com
>Subject: Contesting and the Internet
>
>The more I dabble into the Internet the more I worry about the
future of
>Contesting. Things used to be really simple in the old days.
Bill Scholz
New Century Technologies, Inc.
Newport Beach, California, USA
(714) 720-1697
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