[Elecraft] CW Contest and Elecraft K3s decoder

[Doug Turnbull]

Gentlemen and Ladies,
     Calm down we enjoy a wonderful technological hobby.    I am a CW rag
chewer but like the F1 button to send CQ in a contest and F2 to send the
report.   It saves my wrist.   Copy is by my ears though the K3 decoder is
there it will not cope with pileups so you use your ears.    

     My new car has adaptive cruise control, lane assist and blind spot
monitoring - great the car is a bit safer!    Technology is what our hobby
is about; FT8 and all.    There are many rooms in the masters house.

     Enjoy and keep pounding the brass.

                      73 Doug EI2CN

-----Original Message-----
From: elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:elecraft-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of EUGENE GABRY
Sent: 27 November 2017 22:54
To: elecraft at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Elecraft] CW Contest and Elecraft K3s decoder


> On November 27, 2017 at 2:39 PM Fred Moore wrote:
> 
>      CW contests have
>     become a machine contest not a Ham contest...
> 


This is something I fight personally when I decide to enter a CW contest.
Technology is great, it has allowed those who are either not proficient at
CW or can't even copy CW, to be able to communicate.

I've always thought the focus of a "conTEST", whether CW or SSB was to test
the capabilities of the "operator" to accurately receive the information
sent, making as many contacts in the time period of the contest as possible.
Scores determined in part, by busted calls or other information copied
incorrectly, and then scoring against their peers. 


Today there are a lot of (Robots) that can decode CW. It is true that all
robots are not the same, and errors could occur. Just wonder when we draw
the line as to who/what is being judged for accuracy.  


I love the technology. It's great for communications. (I think you know
where I stand on robotic modes like FT8 :) )

But in a contest, "these days" it seems to come down to who has the best
robotics (machines) to eliminate the human element for the sake of driving
up the score to new levels.


73 Gene

N9TF  
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