On Mon, Nov 29, 2004 at 11:12:25AM -0500, Joe Subich, K4IK wrote:
>
> > From: ak0a
> >
> > I agree with you Bill. the only people who are against this
> > are the SO2R ops. Why? I cant figure out. What are they scared of?
I think I qualify as an SO2R op. I am not scared of you adding a
category - you want categories? Go check out the WPX contest - it
has a category for everyone. I guess when the SO1R category is
added it will have abut 20 more categories.
> If you are arguing for separate categories, then a separate category
> for towers over 22 meters and multiple antennas per band should be
> implemented long before a separate category for SO2R.
Where to draw the line? And is it tower height? Number of elements?
What about the folks that live on hills with really nice
sloping foreground? Are their towers equal to the towers
of the guys that live on flat ground or at the bottom of the hill?
There are many reasons why folks get on in radio contests. I would
hope the overriding reason is because it is fun.
I have been doing radio contests for more than 25 years now - I never
would have dreamed that I would write a sentence like that when I was
doing the first contest I ever entered back in 1977. It was the ARRL
10 meter contest and I was a novice at the time. We lived in a three
bedroom ground floor apartment and I had a Kenwood TS-520 and a
1/2 wave dipole strung down the hall. I was planning for this contest
for weeks, maybe months and I made 21 contacts and a whole 702 points.
I keep coming back for more because I enjoy operating the contest, I enjoy
the thrill of the hunt, the thrill of not knowing what will happen at
the next CQ or the next change in band conditions.
I do like the competition but that is secondary in many ways to just
getting on the radio and checking in with friends all over the world
and experiencing the event. Or as N0AX said, "listening to the planet
turn." N6AA and N6ZZ didn't go around the planet operating
from each of the 40 zones in the CQ WW contests for the past 20 years
because they wanted to be at the top of the top ten - they did it because
they love contesting.
It is also fun for me to work in improving my skill set and pushing myself
to stay focused and flogging the radios even when I am tired or the bands
are bad - I find it gives me a great sense of accomplishment to do my
best against whatever is thrown my way during the event.
I have not always had huge hardware to play with but I love this
game and I have worked things out in my life (I am not rich) so that
I can have a decent station. I have done this so I can have fun
playing on the radio.
If all I had was a G5RV in the tree I am pretty sure I would still be
on the bands pushing myself and my station. But it is this same drive
that has led me to improve my station.
Back when I was starting out at this contest stuff I did not have much
but I still got on - there were far fewer categories back then and you know
it never much crossed my mind that I would want a category because I was running
a tri-bander at 40' and some wires or that I only had an amp that would put out
400 watts if the line voltage was really good. I still did full efforts.
There have been several comments made during this discussion about SO2R
categories.
- "I don't send in my logs anymore because of lack of a SO1R category."
- "SO2R is going to kill contesting."
- "Having a separate category will save contesting."
These are all missing the point - contesting is fun - the lack of categories
is not what is getting newbies into contesting. They are getting on in
contests because they find them to be fun and maybe challenging.
The thing that got me all fired up about that ARRL 10 meter contest back
in 1977, that had be dreaming and planning what I would do and even
dreaming up ways to put up an outdoor antenna for the weekend was not
a category or a hope of winning a certificate or anything like that - it
was the writeup in QST.
I was not an ARRL member yet and I only had been given a few issues of QST
but I sure did read them often and it was the report of some previous 10 meter
contest that got me fired up about the contest. I must have read that article
about a million times.
You want to get more folks on in contests?
Promote them.
(There is a reason the CQP is the biggest state QSO party.)
Talk them up.
Get your friends on the radio.
Write an article for QST or CQ or volunteer to do the
write up for one of the contests. Writing the results up
is hard and fresh ideas would be most welcome I bet. You want
to see some cool side-bar or more in-depth contest coverage
then maybe you can step up to the plate and create it. Doing so
will only help the sport of contesting.
I am looking forward to seeing you in the next contest.
--
George Fremin III - K5TR
geoiii@kkn.net
http://www.kkn.net/~k5tr
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