On 10/23/2018 1:50 PM, Paul O'Kane wrote:
It seems to me that any mode that is not and can not be decoded by
individual
contesters (people) in real-time does not truly represent amateur radio.
That's pretty narrow-minded. Ham radio started with spark and every ham
building 100% of their own kit. That's REAL ham radio! 100 years later,
ham radio is a lot more. It's FAR more than contesting. It would be
interesting to know how much of their own stations (or even a club
station) so-called top contesters have built. THAT'S as much a part of
ham radio as the transmission mode.
I started contesting in 1955, when we sent with bugs, logged and checked
dupes on paper. Rigs were separate TX and RX, TX was part home-brew,
antennas were home brew. Is THAT real ham radio? In the '60s, when I was
able to buy a used rig that could work SSB, migrated to a keyer/paddle,
and in the next ten years or so, was thrilled to buy my first AEA memory
keyer that could remember and send serial numbers.
I was off the air for most of several decades, running my own small
engineering biz and otherwise having a life. By the time I got back on
the air in 2003, we logged, checked dupes, and sent CW using computers,
and called CQ on SSB using voice recorders.
Through the next decade, RTTY contesting became popular, as did SO2R
operation. Contesting became increasingly a matter of stretching the
brain. And if that wasn't enough, someone thought of the Sprint format,
eliminating the practice of running, and stretching the brain to the
breaking point! I'd be interested to know how many contesters do any of
this without a computer.
I DO know top contesters who have designed and/or built most of their
own stations, either individually or as part of a group, although I can
think of only a few who have designed and built any of their own kit,
and I can count them without taking my shoes off. On the other hand, I
know high-scoring contesters who are appliance operators, not knowing
which end of soldering iron to pick up or how any of their kit works.
73, Jim K9YC
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