With all due respect, the 'social aspect' of contesting is putting faces to
callsigns at conventions, otherwise it's 59 ON or 59 04. This mailing list
may be another one, but as with conventions, not 'RF based'.
As for automation, I think you misunderstood FT8. K9YC put it nicely.
The zombie bots out there are modifications. They are not part of the mode.
The same, or similar thing, can be done with other modes. Just because
nobody talks about them does not mean they don't exist.
In addition to the above, autonomous zombie bots may be illegal. In this
case we are really into another realm.
Those in the hobby long enough will have seen other 'questionable'
practices. One that comes to mind right away is the old DX List, of the
'good contact' type, not mailing lists.
The 'real problem' with FT8 is that it is popular, and as such, has shaken
a lot of people out of their comfort zones.
Time will tell how long it's going to be popular. In the mean time, nobody
is forced to use it. Only 3kHz per band is being 'wasted' to FT8. There is
no shortage of spectrum for other modes.
73 de Vince, VA3VF
=====================
But, even as a geeky, introverted nerd, I have to counter that
contesting has a social aspect that appears missing when we all build
our robots to compete with each other and wake up at the end of the
weekend to see who won (or have I completely misunderstood FT8?) I still
like hearing the old calls year after year, and sadly missing the ones
that don't show up anymore.
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