Contesting
Okay, people, it's official: I'm a contester.
I used to be a casual operator. If I heard a DX station, I'd try to work him; if I didn't after three or four shouts, that was okay. If there was a contest going on, I'd work a few stations before switching the rig off.
Frankly, I think I was afraid. Afraid of my piddly little station not standing a ghost of a chance with K3LR and W3LPL - hell, afraid of not being able to compete with the guy a few miles away with a tower and tribander. Field Day was always fun - and please don't flame me for calling it a contest; it is what it is - but I was always using someone else's nice equipment with pretty good antennas. It wasn't my station, which couldn't possibly be competitive, ever.
Then I stumbled across the North American QSO Party last year. 150-some QSOs later, I realized that my little station might actually allow me to have fun. So I started playing in contests even more. When I participated in last year's Pennsylvania QSO Party and made 17,000 points operating at 3/4 throttle for only half the available operating time, I really started thinking about my hangups.
See, I was worried about my station. Consisting as it does of twenty-year-old radio technology, it hasn't a prayer of being competitive against people with new rigs with all the digital bells and whistles. No DSP, no automatic notch, no digital bandpass filtering (for that matter, no filtering at all!) here at AB3EI. No tower, no yagi - no, not even a tribander - just a couple of wires strung up not that high at all, actually. Oh, and no amplifier.
There is a certain thrill to contacting as many stations as possible during a given time-frame; it's especially exciting when you find a rare station, the whole world is calling him, and you actually snag the contact with a station like mine. There's also a wonderful sense of accomplishment when you use your little grey cells to strategize your operation based on your station, skills, and endurance - and you meet your goal(s).
For me, it's good because even at my young age my body is incapable of sustained competitive physical sport (except maybe cricket or golf; I can't stand golf, and I haven't time for cricket). Yet I have a very wide competitive streak which needs to be satisfied. Moreover, I have little enough operating time that I need to carefully schedule my on-air activity. Planning for contest weekends allows me to fairly schedule my on-air time amongst the other family activities.
So for me it's always a win. ;)
Every contester operates for different reasons. Maybe your goal is to win. Maybe you want to beat your pal across town. Maybe you want to optimize your operating skills. Maybe you want to work that last country for an award. Whatever the reason, good for you, and bonne chance!
I'll see you on the air!
I used to be a casual operator. If I heard a DX station, I'd try to work him; if I didn't after three or four shouts, that was okay. If there was a contest going on, I'd work a few stations before switching the rig off.
Frankly, I think I was afraid. Afraid of my piddly little station not standing a ghost of a chance with K3LR and W3LPL - hell, afraid of not being able to compete with the guy a few miles away with a tower and tribander. Field Day was always fun - and please don't flame me for calling it a contest; it is what it is - but I was always using someone else's nice equipment with pretty good antennas. It wasn't my station, which couldn't possibly be competitive, ever.
Then I stumbled across the North American QSO Party last year. 150-some QSOs later, I realized that my little station might actually allow me to have fun. So I started playing in contests even more. When I participated in last year's Pennsylvania QSO Party and made 17,000 points operating at 3/4 throttle for only half the available operating time, I really started thinking about my hangups.
See, I was worried about my station. Consisting as it does of twenty-year-old radio technology, it hasn't a prayer of being competitive against people with new rigs with all the digital bells and whistles. No DSP, no automatic notch, no digital bandpass filtering (for that matter, no filtering at all!) here at AB3EI. No tower, no yagi - no, not even a tribander - just a couple of wires strung up not that high at all, actually. Oh, and no amplifier.
There is a certain thrill to contacting as many stations as possible during a given time-frame; it's especially exciting when you find a rare station, the whole world is calling him, and you actually snag the contact with a station like mine. There's also a wonderful sense of accomplishment when you use your little grey cells to strategize your operation based on your station, skills, and endurance - and you meet your goal(s).
For me, it's good because even at my young age my body is incapable of sustained competitive physical sport (except maybe cricket or golf; I can't stand golf, and I haven't time for cricket). Yet I have a very wide competitive streak which needs to be satisfied. Moreover, I have little enough operating time that I need to carefully schedule my on-air activity. Planning for contest weekends allows me to fairly schedule my on-air time amongst the other family activities.
So for me it's always a win. ;)
Every contester operates for different reasons. Maybe your goal is to win. Maybe you want to beat your pal across town. Maybe you want to optimize your operating skills. Maybe you want to work that last country for an award. Whatever the reason, good for you, and bonne chance!
I'll see you on the air!
posted by R P Davis at 11:27
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