I just got back on the air in January, so all my data is for the past two
months. About 50% of the contacts are casual DXing, the other half from part
time efforts in the various NA and DX contests so far this year. Out of about
1,500 contacts, LOTW is running about 35%, eQSL about 29%.
After about a decade of being off the air, the broad penetration of QRZ.com and
LOTW/eQSL is what seems to have changed the most - it seems like for many QSO's
"name is/rig is/QSL via" has been replaced with "look at QRZ.com". On the
contesting software side, looks like most of the change has been the
SO2R-ization of the software on the high end, with all kinds of new stuff
basically all built around the orignal CT inteface in the middle of the screen
(and in the function keys.)
On the lower end, amazing how many logbook oriented contest loggers are now out
there and neat to see software like EI5DI's SD take a innovative approach for
non SO2R/non multi/non-assisted operations.
Two other Rip Van Winkle observations: (1) The Packetcluster monster has become
to HF operation what spam is to Internet email. There is a nugget of usefulness
that is way overloaded by the downside - the equivalent of spam filtering is
badly needed for packetcluster operations. (2) It gratifying to see that once
the contest starts, being loud and fast and accurate counts more than being the
most digitronic.
John K3TN (ex WB2EKK)
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