David Pratt wrote: So why bother with sending reports in contests if they are meaningless, Dave?
-------------------------------------------------------------------- Yes. What ended interest in contesting for me was the demise of the signal report (Actual "here's how I hear you" signal report that is...) Sure, many signal reports are bogus, contest or not, but garnering dozens of reports during a contest gave one a good idea of how their installation was working and in what directions in spite of the sometimes sloppy, unrealistic reports. But too many people now think that hammering away on a computer for long hours is actually a "sport" and signal reports are of no interest. That's their choice. There seem to be many of them. I noticed in the contest calendar posted here on the reflector for June that there's a contest for almost *every day* of the month although most of them are piled on top of each other on the weekends. Even so, there are many, many of us Hams for whom nothing could be more boring than long hours of brief, preprogrammed exchanges. On weekends like this you can always join us on 30, 17 and 12 meters. Like 40 and 20 meters, 30 and 17 meters are often open even during the sunspot minimum and 12 can provide all the excitement of 10 when cdx are good. You'll find some interesting Hams, both local and DX, with real things to say sending on *real* keys - often hand pumps and bugs - and you can probably get a good signal report as well! 73, Ron AC7AC ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
