Contesting, as I have said before, is an exercise in engineering.  They write the rules.  You design your station and strategy to maximize your score within those rules.  In such an arbitrary or contrived pursuit, it is often difficult to discern whether proposed rule changes are significant or important.  One of the latest targets is SO2R operation.  Let’s break down the reasons why the present categories exist:

• Single Operator, power levels:  Power changes your strategy.  But, other things created equal, you’ll certainly make more contacts running higher power, regardless of strategy.  Power is a bolt-on advantage.
• Single Operator, assisted:  Assistance makes use of information or skills (in the antiquated case of loggers) of additional operators who do not actually operate.  Clearly, one operator is not doing all of the operating.
• Multi-Operator:  Clearly, adding additional transmitters increases your ability to attract QSOs by CQing.

Where does SO2R fit into this?  As expert K5ZD has observed, SO2R is something that you grow into being able to leverage.  This suggests that SO2R is predominantly a skill, at least on CW and Phone and perhaps to a lesser extent on RTTY (although, I will say that I think CW is more natural than RTTY).  Adding SO2R costs less than adding an amplifier.  So, it’s not a matter of haves and have-nots.  My scores sagged the first times I did SO2R—clearly not a bolt-on advantage here.

W4PA made an interesting observation about the M/S category recently:  Why is no one clamoring for MS1R, MS2R, MS3R, etc, categories?  Or in M/M for that matter?  Because these  guys are more interested in winning by pushing the state-of-the-art than by creating a new category for themselves.

Am I opposed to an SO2R category?  Not specifically.  If such a distinction were to be made, it should be included in a limited/unlimited distinction like the T/S category in WPX.  Fix all of the category “problems” in one motion.  But, until such a limited category is created, leave SO alone!

I cruised by eHam for the first time in a long time the other day.  As, I’ve mentioned here before, I left due to the low SNR and because the forums weren’t exactly, um, inspirational.  There was one of the perennial Contest-Anticontest threads raging in the Contesting forum.  The originator sarcastically “thanked” contesters for “trashing” the bands during the CQ WW CW contest last weekend.  I skimmed through the bashing from both sides until I got to a poster who said, “Thank you, contesters, for giving me some contacts.”

You’re quite welcome!  This guy knows what’s up.  He’s new to HF and had a terrible time making contacts outside of contests.  A lot of us started out in his shoes.  Honestly, when I first got on HF at 14, I didn’t feel like I had anything to say to older people on the radio—that’s why I left repeaterland.  Now that I’ve done some stuff, that’s different…but, I still like contesting.  Over the past five years, I’ve found friends that I’ve operated, built antennas, strategized, or just plain shook hands with.  Some of the most interesting people I know are contesters.  Tell me that ’59’ contacts are impersonal!

This is a great hobby.  Life is too short to bash any of your fellow hams!

N6TR has posted the draft Sprint results. Although I’m disappointed with my overall effort and score, I’m pleased that I missed the golden log by one busted QSO. I may not QSY fast, yet; but, at least I’m pretty accurate. The guys who do this contest well still amaze me.

When I put the teams together, KJ9C always says, “There’s a big party in Indy this weekend; I don’t know if I’ll be in any shape to contest.” Then, he swoops in and stomps me.  This is the second year he’s done that. K4LT always has a beer before a contest to keep the jitters down. Maybe there’s something to that. I don’t think it tastes good enough even if my scores did go up…

I started to work on my backlog of bureau (“buro”) QSLs last night.  Like many contesters, I find QSLing to be an enormous chore, especially via the bureaus.  But, as I am fond of saying, contesting is a marketing game; a nice QSL may be as important to operator you contacted as the QSO was to your score.

One of the fascinating things about the bureau cards is that they come in chunks by country.  I’ve received a lot of cards for my CE/K8GU operation in August 2006.  It seems as though Chile was highly sought-after in Europe, especially on CW.  I must have been pretty loud up there, too, with the antenna at the edge of the cliff.

Working through the QSLs did bring back memories of learning to work a pile-up and log on paper.  You see, I didn’t have a computer suitable for logging along on the trip.  So, I had to log on paper.  I entered the entire log into my computer on the flight home.  (At Sarah’s prodding, I had read Harry Potter on the way down.)  It’s a good thing I entered the entire log because I left the log in the back of the seat pocket in front of me.

Anyhow, I’m getting the itch to be DX again…

The Sprint, as I have written before, is a CW operator’s contest. Last night, the usual Thursday night gang, plus some, gathered for another happy half-hour of Sprint practice. But, the rules were different: high-power (1.5 kW) was permitted and no duplicate contacts (per band) were allowed. I felt puny, especially on 40 and 80 after the masses left 20 meters. Looking at 3830 this morning, I notice that almost everybody ran high power. 12 dB makes a difference…(not to mention that I have about the smallest antennas of anyone who participates.)

Ham radio’s ability to set up ad hoc communications networks that are immune to natural disasters and jamming is legendary.  Rightly so, I add.  However, it disappoints me that so much ham radio recruiting has turned to this as a selling point…be a ham, carry an HT, be a HERO (a HERO…a HERO…a hero…a hero—if you don’t get this, it’s from a long-forgotten episode of the Simpsons.)  Of course, in this time of “war on terror” (“terror” is not a state and therefore does not deserve capitalization) and heroism and emergency preparedness are all the rage.  Why should ham radio be any different?

When I was in high school, I spent my summers working at a two-way radio shop. We installed and maintained the public service communications equipment for the surrounding towns and the county as a whole.  This was an enlightening experience on many levels…I learned some of my most important troubleshooting skills at that job.  But, another thing that I recall is the sheer enormity and robustness of the systems, especially for 911 and dispatching.  I’m sorry; but, ham radio has nothing on these guys.  It’s organized and has better back-up power , redundancy, and lightning protection than 95% of hams.  And, I’m talking about a rural county with a population less than 40000.
So, what about disasters that destroy or disable this sort of sophisticated system?  I’m glad you asked.  The efficacy of ham radio as a communication resource is heavily rooted in its ability to self-organize and self-deploy…flexibility and technical competence.  Have you been to your local radio club meeting lately…or listened to your local repeater lately?  Flexibility isn’t exactly the first word that comes to mind.

The technical competence of the average ham has been declining since commercial equipment was first available, probably in the 1920’s.  When I see and hear about some “go-kits” and “emergency comm centers” that have been built, I shake my head.  An FT-817 to a screwdriver antenna does not an emergency communication system make.  Sure, they look pretty and professional.  But, trust me; when the poop jumps off, I’ll be the guy with the communications-grade transceiver using full-sized antennas.

And then there’s the paramilitary types.  The genesis of this blog entry was the following ad on QRZ.com.  Advertising, even on the Internet, costs money.  Somebody thought that hams were an important part of this market.  Note that the other ads on the site are almost exclusively about ham radio.  It’s like the old Sesame Street game, “Which one does not belong?”

Self-organize, self-deploy, and self-defend?  Right.  If you want to serve your country in this way, you should be in the National Guard or the military.  If they don’t want you, there’s probably a good reason for that.

Anyhow, the point of all of this is not to point fingers at those who are interested in emergency communications.  Rather, step back and evaluate what you’re doing.  Playing the emergency communications card repeatedly is not sustainable.  Do we really want a ham population that’s gung ho on emergency communications but has no other skills or interests in the hobby?  My primary interest is contesting; and I’ll be the first to say that I’m glad not every ham is a contester!  Think about that one.

I swear, they must be giving out ham radio licenses in boxes of Cracker Jacks these days…this gem is from eHam…

Can 2 radios in the same house different antenna’s a 2 meter and a 10 meter, transmit at the same time without disturbing the radio waves or will it change the patern of them and if so how well will we get out?

I think I’m going to put a sign in my shack that says, “Don’t disturb the radio waves.”