Ric Trexell wrote:
I was reading a few of the posts about how there will not be a need for ham
radio in the future due to all the new ways of communicating. That has a
lot to do with it but I think the biggest problem with ham radio is the hams
themselves. CB'ers killed CB'ing with bad language and hams are doing it
with those stupid contests. I remember as a kid getting my first SW radio
and listening to hams talk about their lives and the area that they lived in
and stuff like that. Now when I turn it on I get guys talking only about
their radio or calling CQ CQ contest. Then another will come back and say
they are 5 and 9 out here in Kansas and soon the guy is calling CQ CQ
contest again. Does any one think that people are going to invest in a
radio and all the learning to do what are nothing more than fancy radio
checks? If that is what the ham bands are going to be used for, then I say
turn them over to business and telephone radio freqs. Ric.



Well.......as far as the contesters......they are without question the
best operators in the world. It is really sad to listen to the so called
emergency nets. The Net Control operators have a hard time coping more
than 1 checkin at a time. They really need to listen to some top notch
contesters running a pileup at 250-280 qso's per hour. I am amazed how
these net control type of operators can complain about contesters since
most have no skills for handling a large volume of traffic in a short time.

I personally do not like phone contest's and when I was active I did the
CW contests. It is a real treat to call CQ & have several replies at the
same time. If you stummble you will not get the contacts as most will
only call 3 times before moving on.

If my health/welfare depended on Radio communications I would want all
of the big contest stations & their TOP SHELF operators handling the
traffic.

One other note.....If you like to DX....you can easily hear over 100
countries in 1 weekend of listening to a contest.

73, Ken KG4BIG / KT4ZX in many contests