“Poor choice” on your part or mine? (Not trying to give you a hard time, I just
want to make sure I didn’t misspeak)
That touch of kidding-around aside…
Of course, what is the “best” radio is a very subjective thing these days.
Size, shape, other ergonomics, manufacturer/brand loyalty, filter selection...
all are factors. The ideal radio for one event may be worth bupkus in the next.
Speaking only for myself, I’ve tried a lot of rigs. (It helps that I have a
friend who also cycles through a lot of rigs, which is how I ended up with that
Omni VII, but I digress.) I haven’t tried them all, and I certainly don’t claim
to be an expert. Given the choice between a K3 and an Eagle, for solo operating
on my own, it would be the Eagle hands down. I just plain like it better.
Now if I had an Eagle (I wish, but with a Corsair II, Omni VI+, and Omni VII in
the shack these days… plus an old PM2B for QRP… there’s no room for it, and I
don’t need another rig collecting dust – I have a Swan 3Drifty for THAT), and I
was politely informed by a team contest crew that had invited me that I wasn’t
to bring it… well, I’d probably go elsewhere. I don’t think one should rule out
using one of (if not the) hottest receivers on the market these days because
someone else determines that one top-level rig is that superior to another.
Clearly others feel differently, and more power to them. I just think if you’re
inviting ops, and inviting those who can to bring their own gear, you need to
both be flexible and try and accommodate the best rigs you can get your hands
on.
Yeah, that’s also theoretical. I don’t think I’ll ever see an invitation like
that ever again, at least not for anything within driving distance. With a
daughter a year out from college, that’s about as far as I can afford to travel
these days.
I get that sometimes the team players have to set aside personal preferences on
behalf of the team. But one should not do so blindly, nor do so in a way that
handicaps you. And one has to wonder if the team is truly looking out for their
own best interests, or if the team leader has their own agenda or ulterior
motive, that is being hidden behind the “team” concept. (I can think of more
than a few people who would just as soon prefer to still run a M/S or M/M
station on nothing but Drake C-Line with all the mods, to the exclusion of
anything else). Sometimes the worst thing you can do, for both you and the
team, is “take one for the team.”
Now, WRT the software situation… OK, I understand that a developer only has so
much time. And I can understand that a given software team may hesitate to
constantly write new code for new radios… even so, new radios come on the
market somewhat frequently, and you can’t always assume that they’re backward
compatible with the older models they replaced.
But if I recall correctly, you mentioned (or if not you, someone did) that one
of the problems that the Win-Test developers had with adapting their software
to the Eagle was that they didn’t have access to one. Well, John Henry has made
the offer. From what he says, it should be an easy implementation. (Heck, if I
was using the software, I’d take him up on that – free use of an Eagle for a
few weeks while putting together an INI file? Almost too good to pass up… but I
don’t use the software…) So, how do we make the developers aware of this offer?
And will they follow up with it, or was that merely a convenient excuse?
Finally, no, I’m not really a sports car buff. I do like watching them run at
the Vintage Grand Prix though. My flag corner doubled this year for the “patron
charity rides” between practice/race sessions; they used three Mini Coopers,
and BMW sent an M4 from their drivers school in South Carolina, along with one
of the instructors. (Even gave us all at the corner a nifty hat). Two things I
got from watching him drive that M4 all weekend… (1) man! Is he a fantastic
driver, and (2) there is NO WAY you’d get me in a car with that speeding
lunatic… and I mean that in a good way…
73, ron w3wn
On 07/25/14, Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP wrote:
Ron, that was perhaps a poor choice of words.
I regularly get invited to one of our many teams.
I think that's because most of the guys remember the old Rick and don't
realize that I'm an old man now.
In all honesty, if I took them up on their offer, I would probably
disappoint them.
If I should decided to get back into team contesting, then I would want to
perform as best as I can and in order to do that, I need to become familiar
with the radio I would be using. Usually a K3 (now days).
Of course I could keep my Eagle but there is no way they would ever allow an
Eagle on site at one of our team contesting stations. At least not at any
of the serious ones. Keep in mind, we have about 400 members in our club
and tens of contest stations.
So if my goal was to join a team again, YES, I would definitely choose my
second favorite radio in order to prepare myself for the Olympics.
That's all theoretical because I don't think I could deal with the stress of
a serious team effort any more. I prefer to contest on my own and sleep
when I want to, not when the schedule says I have to.
Or in other words, I would rather keep my Eagle than have to buy a K3 to
prepare for team contesting.
Ron, if I remember correctly, you are a sports car buff.
Back in the 60's the best formula one driver in the world (IMO) was Stirling
Moss.
He was never the world champion because he refused to drive any car that
wasn't British.
He could have gotten a seat in the Ferrari team, but he refused.
Thus he never made it.
The next driver to achieve that was Jimmy Clark, several years later.
Team players have to put their personal preferences aside and do what the
team demands.
73 - Rick, DJ0IP
(Nr. Frankfurt am Main)
-----Original Message-----
From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Ron
Notarius W3WN
Sent: Friday, July 25, 2014 5:29 PM
To: tentec@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TenTec] SOFTWARE at WRTC
So you would sacrifice (IMHO, having used both) the better of the two radios
for the sake of the team?
...granted, both are excellent rigs, so it may not be a HUGE sacrifice.
Still...
73, ron w3wn
On 07/25/14, Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP wrote:
I'm not sure what a "serious casual relationship" is.
I think you'll find most participants are also members of contest teams and
they tend to run what other team members run.
As such, this can potentially limit your selection of radios.
I use WIN-TEST because that's what my club chose.
The Eagle won't play right with WIN-TEST so I could never take it to a team
contesting site.
If I were still actively participating in Team Contesting, and could only
have one radio, I would sell the Eagle and buy a K3. The software DOES
affect your hardware choice if you are a team player.
73 - Rick, DJ0IP
(Nr. Frankfurt am Main)
-----Original Message-----
From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of K8JHR
Sent: Friday, July 25, 2014 4:37 PM
To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment
Subject: Re: [TenTec] SOFTWARE at WRTC
I don't see a serious causal relationship here. I doubt anyone selected his
competition radio because it works with a particular logger ...
instead, I expect they selected their favorite rig, and then selected a
logging program that works with it.
It would be a case of the tail wagging the dog to think otherwise.
--------------------- JHR -------------------------
On 7/25/2014 1:59 AM, Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP wrote:
> (John Henry, I hope you read this!)
> WINTEST: 40
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