On Tue, 5 May 2009 13:25:19 -0500, "Les Rayburn" <les@highnoonfilm.com>
said:
> As Frank said, I can see both sides of the issue. I also agree that the
> focus on Gene's article was on distance scoring, and his points were
> being
> made to say that WSJT contacts shouldn't have the same scoring weight as
> contacts made using other modes. He wasn't trying to disparage digital
> modes
> per se.
I apologize if I over-reacted, I read it very quickly and then saw the
on-list complaint and had a similar "impression" as the original poster.
I don't think Gene really meant to
I still disagree in theory with all of these rediculous rules for
specific modes, etc... though -- in principal. At least for June VHF.
The STATED GOAL of the contest is to MAKE CONTACTS. "Weighting" or
other convoluted silliness (including the never-ending rover rule
changes to try to deal with the fact that some people simply can't keep
up and LOSE to the Californians... Yes, you lost. Compete or die, as
they say...) just keeps adding complexity to something that should be
SIMPLE.
You either made the contact, or you didn't. I don't care if you used
the Internet, I don't care if you can afford to drive around in circles
in the desert all weekend, I don't care if you used WSJT on moon-rise...
you make the contact you get the points.
All the rest of it is hooey.
> For me, the issue isn't why operators are using WSJT, it's why are they
> not?
For me... to "move on" here and discuss the interesting stuff... it's
simply a matter of lack of experience with it, and little time to set up
skeds or otherwise learn it. I've made ONE single contact on it, an
easy across-town shot. I would need a lot more free time hours in the
days to really learn it... but I want to.
(I'll start hunting for people to do skeds if I suddenly find myself
with days and days of free time, but the only people I know who have
that are retired, and even then... I know "retirement" often means you
get busier. As a mid-30's guy, I have a house to take care of, a ham
club to run, tower/site work to do for multiple repeater sites, and who
knows what else... let's not even talk about the landscaping that's full
of dead grass and crabgrass, and the retaining wall that's about to fall
down! GRIN! VHF weak signal is something I only do during contests and
maybe a few more times a year.)
> While it's remarkable abilities may make EME & MS contacts "easy" by
> comparison to a decade ago, that doesn't mean that the challenges are
> gone.
Agreed. Just having the time to learn it is a challenge! (GRIN!)
> BTW, I also like the idea of a "VHF Heritage Night" with only CW or SSB
> allowed. But let's not let nostalgia get in the way of progress.
Glad you liked that one. It just seemed "obvious" to me, since
"straight key nights" are always a well-attended, virtually "entrenched"
tradition already... might as well have the same thing for other dying
technologies, as they die! (Ducking... just kidding!)
Nate WY0X
--
Nate Duehr
nate@natetech.com
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