Hoo boy, this certainly has been interesting! As I remember, Dave, K1WHS,
only opened this subject by asking whether or not the League considered the
mode to be *legal* for contests based on previous (and rather old)
communications he had received stating that signals must be copied in real
time by ear (or something like that). In preparing for the contest this
coming weekend, it sure seemed to me a reasonable question to ask. Here's
the thing... While this thread has almost completely dominated the
discussion on the VHF Contesting reflector, i'm not sure anyone has actually
answered the original question!!!
I am pretty much an all out competitor in contests. If I can increase my
score by using some new mode or band I will. I personally like to *hear* the
other guy (and comprehend the information) in real time, but that doesn't
mean I wouldn't use a mode (except possibly for FM - arrgghh) if it would
help my score. It would be nice if everyone was compatible though, so that
random contacts were possible. Otherwise scores will only depend on who has
the hardware and who makes the skeds. Reminds me of the old days on 10 gigs
with big contest stations on nearby mountaintops with incompatible rigs, or
the early days on 902 with some stations on 902 and some on 903MHz unable to
work each other! My point is that whatever we do it should be *capable* of
random contacts (and i know this can and does happen on HSCW!). I'm not
saying we shouldn't make skeds - heck that's the only way to work some of
the long haul stuff, but it sort of takes the fun out of it if everything is
prearranged.
That's (plenty) enough for now. See you all from K1WHS 50MHz-24GHz, this
weekend.
bill, K1DY
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