[Hallicrafters] Contesting

[Mark Bell]

I suggest that you tape the offenders and send the tape into the FCC.  Have
you done that?

Mark K3ZX

----- Original Message -----
From: <W5HTW at att.net>
To: <hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, October 12, 2003 6:10 PM
Subject: [Hallicrafters] Contesting


>
> Duane, et all,
>
> As someone with absolutely zero interest in contesting, I make this
> observation as purely my own speculation.
>
> It is my belief that contesting has evolved into another facet of the
"work
> hard, play hard" society.  We see the symptoms in the sports parents who
> attend the Little League games, screaming obscenities at other parents and
the
> referees, even getting into fights, or going onto the field to attack the
> officials.  It is a part of the 'driven society' that forces us to work 14
> hours a day, and play another fourteen, and sleep four.  We have long
since
> forgotten about keeping up with the Joneses; we passed them years ago and
now
> we just have to keep up with ourselves, and that is impossible.
>
> It is also symptomatic of a society that has a "me first at all costs"
> approach to everything.  There are, though I think they are a small
minority,
> contesters who value the certificate or the paper more than anything else
in
> ham radio, and they will go to any length to get it.  That includes lying
and
> cheating, for the paper on the wall is the end, and the means doesn't
matter.
>  Most contesters appear to be, again in my view, Type Triple A
personalities,
> the same ones who run five miles at lunch while drinking bottled water,
and
> who are pushed and pushing hard at work.  They carry that work
competitiveness
> over to their so-called relaxation, their hobbies, and unfortunately, ham
> radio suffers.  I'd bet you'd find few contesters who also have somewhat
> passive hobbies, such as oil painting or stamp collecting!  As someone who
has
> heard contests in ham radio for nearly 50 years, I see a really huge
> difference in the way they run now and they way they ran before the driven
> society evolved.
>
> There may be nothing at all we can do about it.  One approach could be to
have
> contests only on one or two bands at a time.  But there are so many
contests,
> and not all are sponsored by the ARRL, so scheduling is a problem.
>
> Also I'm not sure withholding funds from the ARRL is a workable plan,
though
> it may would make them pay attention.  There are, though, so many hams now
in
> our nation, and with the upcoming (I know - they are probable, but I
consider
> them a done deal) changes in licensing structure, granting many more hams
> access to HF, I think the ARRL could quite readily replace members who
abandon
> it.  This may not be true at this very moment, but with the new licensing
that
> will (probably) take place, and the new push to get everyone in the world
on
> HF, whether or not they are interested, the ARRL will not likely be hurt.
>
> The bottom line is, if there was a solution, it would already have been
> discussed and probably implemented.  I think it is something we are going
to
> have to tolerate, and gripe about, but our main solution, at least for the
> near future, appears to be to move to the WARC bands during contests.
>
> And I think it will only get worse.
>
> 73
>
> --
> Ed Brooks, W5HTW
> http://w5htw.home.att.net/index.html
> Active since June 1956 Extra since
> Jan 1970
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> List Administrator: Duane Fischer, W8DBF **for assistance**
> dfischer at usol.com
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