Dee Flint wrote:
"Steve Bonine" wrote:

"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.

There's a difference between "haven't the resources" and "choose not to
use the resources".

I don't have a mountaintop QTH with several towers topped with stacked
arrays, and I don't have the latest fancy radios to handle the QRM or
the KW amplifiers to go with them. Those are resources that I don't have.

But I have a computer, and if I didn't have this Luddite idea that CW
should be copied by my own wetware, I could use it to improve my score.
That's a case of choosing not to use a resource. It seems pretty
clear that those of us who choose not to use automation are in contests
for the same reason that you are, and winning isn't the goal.

As I consider the reality of contest categories, I realize that what
they're really doing is separating the "big guns" into their own
category. Anyone who has invested the time and money to build a
mountaintop station with big antennas and fancy radios is going to end
up in the high-power multi-op category. To avoid competing with these,
stay out of that category. This limited attempt to level the playing
field does accomplish something using criteria that are easily measured
(e.g. input power, number of operators).