Hamming?
6 messages in this thread
I hate contests. I think contest are the *worst* thing about amatuer radio.
I think they conflict with every maxim ham radio is made of. I think the
people who hold the contests have ulterior motives, and they are 100%
commercial. The 5/9 QSO is something I've never done, and never will.
Blech, as C. Brown would say. I like SSTV a lot, but the times I am free to
operate, weekends, are often ruined by the idiots in contests. They have
absolutely no curtesy. <fume>
CW – you like it, you're welcome to it. :^) The only real *problem* I have
with CW is that they allow CW QSO's all over the band – including in the
RTTY portions, and where the SSTV and FAX people *try* to operate. It's not
as much of a problem as the SSBers are, though.
Ben
Amateur Radio Callsign is A A 7 A S
Contests were how I came to love Amateur Radio … way back in 1962 (I was
only 11), I got involved in the UK National Field Day involved operating a
station for 24 hours out in the field. Seeking out elusive CW contacts was,
for me, what epitomised the hobby.
Certainly none of the contests then, or since, that I've had any dealings
with were commercially oriented … they were all done for the love and
excitement of the hobby … and, although contest operators do tend to be
very brief in their contacts and don't always respond to every call back on
a CQ, I've never found them to be idiots nor rude.
However, maybe it is different in the US … certainly you have a different
ethos when it comes to the hobby (although we're starting to head towards
something similar) … it seems that Amateur Radio is often used as a means
to an end in a lot of cases (third party messaging; phone patches etc etc)
whereas in the UK it is almost 100% an end in itself (although that is
eroding slightly nowadays)
Mike (Whapping from the UK)
In the US, "contesters" go on the air with absolutely no regard for the
"gentleman's agreement" frequency allocations. I hear UK stations doing it,
too. As a _real_ good example, you can hear people all OVER 14.230 mhz
during a contest, and on 14.233 also. You hear them all over the nets, like
the maritime nets, you hear them every-darn-where. If an emergency were to
occur, you would NEVER be able to use the band to get thru anywhere – not a
snowballs chance in Marla Maples cleavage.
Contests, in the US, consist of a completely unusable ham band, or more
than one. If rules are ever set as to where in the band a contester must
make those contacts, I've never heard of such a thing.
HAM radio, to me, includes, technical innovation and experimentation;
communication (which "you are 5/9" is NOT!); sharing of culture and
friendship; public service; rewarding stimulation from all of the above.
There's no room for contests in MY version of the hobby.
"I'm better than you are" is a useless criteria for HAMs.
–Ben
I'm not much of a contester either Ben. I don't think I could stand 24
hours of screaming into a Mike or pounding on the key "CQ Contest – CQ
Contest – CQ Contest". Although I do listen a lot during the contest's to
see if there is a new country I can work. We haven't been blessed with DX
Packet Cluster here in this part of the country yet, so any DX I do work is
strictly by tuning around the bands and listening. I've also done
considerable studying on propagation theory throughout the years so have a
knack of knowing when to listen, and on what bands. Yes, there are good
DX'ers and bad DX'ers. I feel that I can consider myself one of the good
ones, working most of my 285 countries through skill instead of brute force
and discourtesy.
John – K7KB (via Whap!)
Dx'ing – that's something a long way from contesting. You find someone in
deepest, darkest walla-wa-frump, and you talk to them, learn about what
they do, why they are there, what it's like, and etc. You send them a nice
QSL card, and you both remember the event.
Of course, that's the way I DX… certainly there are those who make it a
contest – I have no use for them at all.
And I'm not at all sure that being a dx'er ever requires the "certificate".
As soon as it's a contest, it's no fun to me.
Not that I dislike contests in general, but HAM radio offers so much more,
a contest only sullies the "good stuff".
Oh well.
–Ben
Ben, Agree with you about contests: blech! Chris