Contesting

[Chester Alderman]

On Feb 19, 2012, at 10:26 PM, Dale Putnam wrote:

> SPECIFICALLY the Elecraft line, if you can hear the other station.. he's
already 5nn, or you wouldn't be answering his call

Not hardly!!! Try getting on 40m with a storm passing, and five or six 100
watt/dipole Eu or Asian signals all calling you at the same time and see how
many of them you can copy with your K3 - or ANY receiver for that matter. It
is just not going to happen - the K3 is good but it sure is not magic!
As for the RST in contest, that is not what most (?) contesters particularly
like to do. It is the contest sponsor who defines the contest exchange, and
the contester has to abide by the sponsors decisions. Have you ever tried to
get the ARRL to change ANYTHING? The other part of the equation is that now
most contest sponsors mandate that contesters scores be reported in Cabrillo
format, meaning the use of a computer is just about mandatory - therefore
the 'canned' 599 reports.
In the early 50's I participated in a lot of CW traffic handling, which
provided me with some 'discipline' in operating CW. In my opinion,
contesting offers the same, but different, type of training. If you forget
about the non-contester hang up about 5NN, try copying 1000 to 2000
different contest exchanges over one weekend and see if you don't learn
something.
The bottom line of all of this is our HOBBY! And a hobby should be FUN.
Fortunately in this hobby, if you don't like the activity you hear, it is
very easy to turn your VFO or actuate your On/Off switch.
73,
Tom - W4BQF


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[Jim Brown-10]

Me too, on both counts. In those old days I made BPL (Brass Pounder's
League) several times, which required passing at least 500 messages an a
month, and had some regular net control assignments on a couple of CW
nets. K2VCO and I first met on one of them in the 50s.

Like Tommy, who I work several times in every contest, I take them
seriously, and have a lot of fun. This weekend, six guys at N6RO, an all
K3 multi-multi with a really nice antenna farm, made more than 1200 Qs
on both 20 and 15M. Since US/VE stations can't work each other, that
means there were at least that many stations on the air outside the US
and Canada.  I'd guess the actual number is a lot higher.

The exchange in the ARRL CW DX contest for those outside US/VE is the TX
power. Each year in this contest I work a dozen or so JAs who are
running 5W, and I've worked a few running 1W.

As to REAL signal reports -- if you really care, try using the Reverse
Beacon Network or WSPR.  Use Google to learn about them. Very useful if
you're checking out a new antenna.  There was also a nice feature about
WSPR in QST a year or so ago.

And as to ragchewing -- I find what 90% of passes for discourse on the
ham bands to be somewhere between disgusting and exceedingly boring.  
And I think that's a big part of why so many of my ham friends drifted
away from ham radio during our middle years. If it weren't for
contesting and the fun of building a station and doing technical
research, I certainly wouldn't have gotten back on the air 8 years ago.

On 2/20/2012 6:35 AM, Tommy Alderman wrote:
> In the early 50's I participated in a lot of CW traffic handling, which
> provided me with some 'discipline' in operating CW. In my opinion,
> contesting offers the same, but different, type of training. If you forget
> about the non-contester hang up about 5NN, try copying 1000 to 2000
> different contest exchanges over one weekend and see if you don't learn
> something.

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