Nate
After reading your post indicating how much I must dislike digital weak
signal modes and don't use them, I went back to reread what I had written in
the May World Above 50 MHz.
Here is the relevant paragraph:
The purpose of distance scoring is to reward longer distance contacts that
are difficult to make. The first problem is how to deal with Es contacts,
which are long but very easy to make, and FSK441 digital contacts that,
while somewhat more difficult to set up, technically utilize the skill of
Joe Taylor, K1JT, as a software author to complete. Given even a very modest
station - 100 W to a small beam - most of your WSJT contacts are guaranteed
if the other station shows up.
To which you say:
****************************************************************************
***********************************************************
If Gene doesn't want to use advanced digital modes either in contests or in
his personal enjoyment of the hobby, he's more than welcome NOT to. But as a
columnist for a membership-based organization (and not an purely
"entertainment" publication), he's wrong to push that agenda from the pages
of the ARRL's membership magazine.
I agree with the original poster, he's out of line.
****************************************************************************
***********************************************************
Where exactly does it say that I don't use WSJT modes? Where does it say
that we shouldn't use them or that they shouldn't be allowed?
What I did say was that distance scoring would be strongly skewed by Es
contacts that are high scoring but at least for single hop easy to make or
by WSJT contacts that are more difficult technically to achieve but also are
relatively easy to make once your equipment is set up to do digital. My
solution to the former was NOT to make June distance scoring. I had NO
solution to the latter.
Somehow you and several others on this reflector have taken this paragraph
out of context to infer that I have something against weak signal digital
modes. On the EME reflector I have been roundly trashed for the same reasons
and for suggesting that we use kilometers as the scoring metric. Several of
my columns have featured digital modes, the best being one written by Joe
Taylor. I have defended the absolute validity of JT EME contacts against
those who claim - wrongly - that such contacts are bogus. I regularly use
FSK441 in contests from K8GP and they regularly yield more than a dozen
grids on 6 and 2 meters combined. [see the contest objective that you
quoted] If and when K8GP returns to EME we will use digital and analog modes
both to maximize our score. It would be silly not to do so.
I reiterate that my May column states only that FSK441 MS contacts will skew
distance scoring results but offers no solution to that problem. Moreover if
you think about it this means maybe a dozen or two contacts vs hundreds if
there is natural Es like the June contact. I fail to see how this represents
in any manner or form an anti-digital agenda.
73 Gene W3ZZ
World Above 50 MHz
FM19jd MD
50 => 10 GHz
Grid Pirates Contest Group K8GP
Member, CQWW Contest Advisory Group
-----Original Message-----
From: Nate Duehr [mailto:nate@natetech.com]
Sent: Monday, May 04, 2009 6:59 PM
To: Gene Gabry; vhfcontesting@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] Fw: Re: Picking a Bone With Gene
On Mon, 4 May 2009 15:18:40 -0700 (PDT), "Gene Gabry"
> Don't get me wrong, I think the no signal heard or seen digital modes
> are wonderful and I do use them occasionally. I go back to my original
> question, what are we testing in a contest, human ability to decode or
> machine?
"Object: To work as many amateur stations in as many different 2 degrees by
1 degree grid squares as possible using authorized frequencies above 50 MHz.
Foreign stations work W/VE amateurs only."
(Why that second sentence is in the "Object" line I have no idea...
that's a "rule", not an object of the contest. But anyway, there's your
answer for June VHF.)
Human ability to set up, operate, and organize all sorts of "machines"
for communication purposes, actually -- yes. Can you copy RTTY in your
head? Do you think the average person off the street if handed all of the
components, including a pre-built IF radio (a "machine" to them), could get
a 10 GHz station operational without instructions?
(Sadly, many hams can't properly program a VHF FM rig these days with a
CTCSS tone to talk through a repeater, and have no idea what an "offset"
is, the radio does it for them... and I recently heard some folks attempting
to explain to someone how to properly tune in an SSB signal one day on a
local repeater. I jumped in and tried, too. As did another ham with more
than 20 years radio experience. The person with the SSB rig, never figured
it out. The nation is getting dumber, not
smarter.)
If someone's idea of a good contest is a homebrew radio contest, they can go
right ahead and create one, and they can even require folks to go back to
creating their own resistors and capacitors too, if they like.
Or if they think that digital modes should be disallowed then they can start
a new contest with "straight mic night" or whatever floats their boat.
Call it the "VHF Heritage Contest", if you like.
So, if he'd have argued that it's time for a new contest, and that he's
volunteering to set it up, for all the "human-copy" purists... that'd be
fine.
But...
The ARRL VHF contest clearly states the object is to work other stations.
Period. Full stop.
If Gene doesn't want to use advanced digital modes either in contests or in
his personal enjoyment of the hobby, he's more than welcome NOT to.
But as a columnist for a membership-based organization (and not an purely
"entertainment" publication), he's wrong to push that agenda from the pages
of the ARRL's membership magazine.
I agree with the original poster, he's out of line.
To make the point even clearer: In the U.S., the FCC CHARTER that covers
why our radio service even EXISTS states that we are to "contribute to the
advancement of the radio art".
Nate WY0X
--
Nate Duehr
nate@natetech.com
_______________________________________________
VHFcontesting mailing list
VHFcontesting@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
|