RadioBanter - View Single Post - What is the ARRL's thought on having good amateurs?

Dave Heil · October 30th 06, 02:15 AM posted to rec.radio.amateur.policy

wrote:
From: Dee Flint on Sun, Oct 29 2006 8:48 am

wrote in message
Dee Flint wrote:
wrote in message
Dee Flint wrote:
wrote in message

No I do not say that all those who learned the code are highly proficient.
I am saying that setting someone up with CWGet for a contest is a recipe for
failure and a very unenjoyable contest experience. When I first started cw
contesting, I had to listen to the station many times through picking out
their call letter by letter over a dozen exchanges before throwing in my
call. I also sent PSE QRS 5 on many occasions to get the balance of the
exchange. But it worked.

If they choose to view as merely a hurdle to pass and never try it, that's
sad but that's their problem.

Never been a problem to me.

Heck no, Leonard. You'd have to first obtain an amateur radio license
in order to worry about amateur radio contesting.

I can't see any personal enjoyment in "contesting," using
kilodollars worth of equipment just to accumulate the most
radio contacts in a short period of time. But, if that's
your Thing, go for it.

Some folks use hundreds of dollars worth of equipment. Some participate
only to work states or countries or grid squares they've never
contacted. Some like to give points to those operating seriously in a
contesting event. Some just like to see if they can't beat the score of
a local friend or to see if they can do better than they did the last year.

I started out in HF radio with the mission of keeping
communications channels open and working 24/7. Not my
thing to hop all over some small band and making
transitory contact with some individual one will probably
never "work" again. I put that on par with being a fan
of "Wheel of Fortune." :-)

In this weekend's CQ Worldwide DX Contest, serious ops likely contacted
the same station on a number of bands. They likely worked most of those
stations on a number of bands last year and the year before. Don't
worry too much about it. You'd have to obtain an amateur radio license
before you could participate.

The FCC has nothing on "contesting," doesn't require it of
any licensee.

Neither do the regs forbid it. Go figure!

Then there are the majority of hams who have no-code licenses...
While they have numbers, way too many of them are inactive or have low
activity levels.

You don't hear them so they don't exist?!?

When I work VHF/UHF contests, I sometimes check the call
signs of the people worked. Most are Extras, some are Generals, and I've
only worked ONE Technician. And that's in a voice contest. Why is that?
They have full band privileges and full power privileges yet they don't use
them. Why? Same deal with the grid square hunters. And so on.

Tsk. VHF-UHF is LOS stuff regularly, sometimes "DX" when
there are atmospheric inversion layers for ducting or other
weird effects.

Weird effects? Most of the propagation modes are fairly predictable,
Len. Line of sight varies with altitude above average terrain, with
height of antennas above ground, with gain of antennas used, with power
used and with feedline and preamps used. Enhanced propagation modes
exist commonly. I can regularly contact 6m stations within a several
hundred mile radius. At 2m and 70cm, I can work stations two hundred or
so miles away. With enhanced propagation modes at 2m or 70cm, I've
worked Iowa and Nebraska. I've contacted 67 countries on 6m in the past
six years. They range from the Marshall Islands to Madagascar.

Did it ever occur to you that OTHER people on ham bands
are NOT really into 'contesting?" Maybe they LIKE to get
to know the other party on a radio circuit?

Being a contester does not preclude ragchewing or DXing or traffic handling.

Now, if the FCC ever gets the 2004 "Omnibus" R&O published
in the Federal Register, we will see if they bothered to
update the old CCITT document to the current ITU document.

:-)

Yeah. "We" will see. Those of us with amateur radio licenses will
operate under the reg changes. You may read them.

In crowded, congested ham bands it would seem mo' bettah
to LEARN how to maintain, repair, calibrate their radios.
The FCC has lots technical requirements on radios which
licensees are REQUIRED to obey.

Fix up your well equipped home workshop, Len. Get it all set up for
maintenance, repair and calibration. That way, you can go right to it
when and if you ever obtain an amateur radio license.

Not to worry. The ready-built designer-manufacturers of
today's ham radios have done all the ADVANCED work for you.
No need to sweat actually LEARNING some beyond-basic
knowledge. Just plug it in and go. You can read the
operating manual as you go along.

Why are *you* worried about it?

You keep stressing the NEED to do radiotelegraphy. I don't
see it.

That has long been evident.

The rest of the world isn't stressing any of that
"CW" need...they just gave up on morse code.

That's incorrect, Leonard. The rest of the world didn't give up the use
or the testing. Some countries gave up testing. In the meantime, if
you'd like to become a radio amateur with HF access here in the U.S. of
A., you'll need to brush up on morse.

Computer programming is NOT for everyone. Some haven't got
the aptitude for it.

Neither is amateur radio, Len, for the same reason.

Dave K8MN