"Steve Bonine" wrote in message
m...
wrote:
[snip]
And I still yearn for the years when the Olympics were limited to true
amateurs.
Yet the ancient Olympics made no such distinction.
Here's an example that illustrates what I'm trying to say. Bridge is a
card game. I enjoy playing it. Many years ago, four of my friends played
bridge during their lunch hour at work. One of them was on vacation, so
they asked me to fill in for him. I flubbed playing a hand, and the three
of them were so upset that they wouldn't speak to me for a week. These
people had taken a card game into territory where I don't care to tread.
That doesn't make their daily game "bad"; it's just not something that I
personally care for.
Some people do get a tad bit too serious about their hobbies.
The same thing can be said of any sport, and I agree that ham radio
contesting is the same way. There are cutthroat competitors out there,
some of whom have spent vast amounts of time and money building the
ultimate contest station. Of course they want to come up with a huge
score, and they will go to great lengths to achieve their goal. OK,
different strokes for different folks. That's not what I enjoy about a
contest, but it's certainly their prerogative to enjoy those aspects.
[snip]
But to get back to the original question of whether there is an effective
way to "level the playing field" relative to use of technology in a ham
radio contest. My personal conclusion is that the current simple rules of
putting people into broad categories based on power, number of operators,
"assistance", and so on are good enough. There are just too many
variables to go any farther. I'd rather see the handicap system be crude
than try to improve it by adding lots of additional factors, especially
when they're impossible to measure.
Someone sitting in a super station with stacked beams at 150 feet has an
inherent advantage over me with my dipole. But how much of an advantage?
Is it ten times easier for them to make a QSO? If we're going to "level
the playing field", what handicap factor should we use? There's no simple
way to deduce it.
"Leveling the playing field" is only important to those who want to win (or
have a category that they can win) but haven't the resources to compete in
an "open" situation. Since I don't care about that, it doesn't matter to
me. I just like to pick up a few contacts, polish my skills, make sure my
station is working correctly and so on.
Dee, N8UZE
Dee, N8UZE