[NLRS] activity

[John P. Toscano]

Mark Brown wrote:
> Contesting is NOT activity, it is an excuse for poor operating practices.
> People qrming qso's in progress etc. When vhf contesters go back to being
> polite like they were  7 years ago I might come back, until then the radio
> gets turned off. And the excuses like I couldn't hear you etc are lame, I
> can hear stations 200+ miles away off the sides and back of the antennas.

Contesting certainly isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I think your 
experiences and mine are at opposite ends of the spectrum.  That doesn't 
mean that either of us is "wrong", just that we have different 
experiences and different interpretations of those experiences.  I would 
refer you to http://www.arrl.org/contests/results/97/09vhfqso.pdf for 
some insight into how I got interested in contesting (look for the 
sidebar with my old callsign, KB�ZEV).  I am still amazed at the general 
LACK of malicious cutthroat contesting that one might expect from a 
competitive "sport".  I still find people to be polite and helpful on 
the air a great deal of the time, even during contests.  But again, 
different folks have different experiences.  Sure, thre are the 
occasional lids in a contest, just like there are the occasional lids on 
a local repeater, on a satellite, or on HF.  Stupidity is ubiquitous, 
but fortunately, not universal.

Although I got brought into Amateur Radio by accident, a twist of fate, 
and the fact that a local FM repeater club (YIKES!) was offering Ham 
classes, my involvement with repeaters only got me modestly involved on 
three bands, with FM gear only.  But some of the friendships I developed 
were with folks whose Amateur Radio interests went way beyond local FM 
repeaters, into weak-signal work, satellites, and yes, even contesting.

The September 1997 VHF contest did an awful lot to get me started on my 
way to my current state of affairs, with working all-mode equipment on 6 
bands, one more band (2304) that I have all the parts for but haven't 
managed to get onto the air, and a few opportunities to play with (and 
contest with) 10 GHz using other people's rigs.  Not to mention 
satellite capability, and even getting bit by the HF bug a little bit 
and looking forward to some cross-country driving trips because the HF 
antenna setup on my van was better than the HF antenna setup at my house.

Much of what I have accomplished in the great expansion of my Amateur 
Radio horizons has come as a direct result of my involvement in the 
NLRS.  Irrespective of any contest activity, just knowing and hanging 
out with these folks, asking questions, sharing experiences, etc., has 
whetted my interest, motivated me to learn more and do more.  Yeah, I've 
felt the "pressure" to "add one more band by the next contest", but I 
don't look at that as a negative, it has caused me to advance my 
building skills, advance my operating skills, and yeah, to even open my 
wallet and spend some more money on the hobby.  So I think that 
characterizing NLRS as a contest-only society is a bit unfair.  As 
others have mentioned, it seems that the group is spending more and more 
of its time on the microwave bands (10 GHz and up), but look at all the 
chatter on the BB about 10 GHz operating that is unrelated to contests: 
finding good sites, understanding operating practices, talking about 
ways to solve equipment dilemmas, etc.  Sure, some of that effort gets 
paid back at contest time, but there's a lot more playing, 
experimenting, having FUN, sharing ideas, etc. going on than racking up 
contest points, even on 10 GHz.

But the original discussion was on (the lack of) random activity, and I 
can't say how the present compares to "the old days" (because I wasn't a 
Ham very long ago), but I can say that you are probably right to 
conclude that simply calling CQ on a calling frequency is less 
productive than it ought to be.  And of course, I am more guilty than 
most in not being very active on the air between contests.  Heck, my 
life is so busy that some nights I'm lucky to squeeze in supper before 
its time to hit the sack and get a few hours of ZZZZs before getting up 
again to start my next day, much less have a few hours to fire up the 
radios and look for ragchew opportunities.  And to be honest, that is 
one of my great disappointments.  I truly wish I had the time to spend 
with Ham radio that I'd like to spend.  Unlike some folks who worry "how 
am I going to keep busy once I retire?", I know for sure what I can do 
to keep myself fruitfully occupied 10 years from now when I don't have a 
job to keep me so busy.

Anyway, if you charge by the word, that's a whole lot more than $0.02 
worth, but that's my opinion and I'm sticking to it!

I hope you all keep the airwaves heated with RF for me while I'm too 
busy to enjoy life.  One of these days, I'll have more time to join you! 
  I've always enjoyed the random ragchews in the past when I could find 
time for them, and look forward to doing more of that in the future.

73 de W0JT