Slopbucket cornholetesters

[W3SLK]

Ellen said:

So QUIT knocking on me for contesting!

I don't think anyone 'knocked on you' for corntesting. However it seems that an overwhelming majority of corntester are jerk, embiciles, (insert any other ill conceived adjective here). Just as you pointed out about the AM community having its share of the same, I can say and I'll hold you to it, that it isn't an overwhelming majority. Not even close!

[KM1H]

There is a big difference between being in a competitive situation compared to one populated by mostly senile old coots...myself excluded from the senile part

Carl

[W2VW]

I wasn't going to reply, but this "all contesters are QRMtesters, and therefore all contesers are GARBAGE operators" is one of the reasons why I have not been active on the board (along with the mentality many AMers seem to have that unless you're armchair copy, and running 300 watts of carrier, you're too hard to hold a QSO with).

So you stay off the board because of a few people who are vocal about not liking all contesters.

Isn't that grouping everyone on the board together exactly like some do with contesters?

[k4kyv]

AM is but one facet of amateur radio, and AM itself is multi-faceted.

Some, but not all the facets of AM include: audio quality, technical experimentation, vintage/historical, restoration, QRO/QRP, class-E and other state-of-the-art technology, homebrewing, etc.

To each his or her own; there is plenty of room on the bands for every interest.

IMO, some of the things that cause people to put down QuaRMtesting include rude operators who display no consideration towards non-participants and think they OWN the band during a contest weekend, the fact that a QuaRMtest may wipe out an ENTIRE BAND for an entire weekend, not to mention those silly bogus "five-nine" signal reports everyone gives everyone else even when they can barely dig the other station out of the noise.

Personally I would find working station after station just to get a callsign and state and exchange bogus signal reports about as exciting as one of those minimum wage assembly-line jobs where you sit all day screwing together identical sets of the same two widgets before passing them on down the line.

The  last contest I participated in was in about 1962 or 63 when I joined in CQ's 160m CW contest. The first year I won the top score for TN (but I was one of only about 3 participants in the whole state).  The following year I was all set to go, and there was some serious  competition that year.  I started out with a bang and went strong for about 2 hours, then it suddenly occurred to me, "Why in hell am I doing this?" I didn't find it particularly enjoyable and it was too much like working at a job to spend an entire weekend doing.  So I just shut the rig off and did something else for the rest of the weekend.

I have never worked a QuaRMtest since, except that sometimes during a 160m CW contest I will try to work a few stations between 11AM and 1 PM just to see how far I can work out at high noon.  My best DX was NJ right at noontime. Whenever I do this, I always give HONEST RST reports and expect the same, but I nearly always get 599 even when I know the other station is barely reading me.

A contest might serve a useful purpose if everyone gave everyone else honest reports, since a whole weekend and hundreds of contacts and sig reports would provide enough statistical data to give you a real idea of just how well you are (or not) getting out in different directions and distances, and to different regions of the country.

Actually, Sweepstakes is better than many of the others in this respect.  They have eliminated the signal report in the exchange, but you have to actually send and receive a set of data to make a valid contact, not just ID the other station. This requires a little skill beyond mindlessly copying down call signs.

[w3jn]

The Icom video promoting stomping on ragchewers has since been removed from their site, but here's an old thread discussing an unpleasant experience I had

http://amfone.net/Amforum/index.php?topic=7149.0

I actually like the Sweepstakes.  It's the only contest that really requires strategy, an understanding of propagation, and almost requires multiband operation to do well instead of just camping out bellering "CQ Contest".  The Pennsylvania QSO party for some reason attracts the worst and most selfish ops of any contest.

[Ed/KB1HYS]

I had thought that contest operations were originally organized to help study propagation by allowing as much data to be collected as possible in a reasonable time, with relatively consistent conditions.

[AF9J]

OK, I'm settled down.  I owe you guys an apology.  But, it just bothers me, when people are painted with a broad brush.  It's no different than when people beat up on AM for being outmoded, a waste of spectrum space, you're caught in the past, etc. (and I've taken flak on more than a few occasions for taking people who made those statements on other forums to task for the statements).  But, I will admit, that there is an anti-cotesting bias I have seen on this board for a long time.  And seeing rants about contests, get as old as the constant rants I see on one online guitar forum, about how Gibson guitars are garbage.  It used to also be that way here with regards to low power and QRP operating (admit it, I've seen a few of you comment on how life is too short for QRP).  I find it very heartening that the New England crowd has a PW net.  If I had better antennas, I wouldn't mind running a midwest version of this.

I like contests, but I don't live for them.  I've had plenty of times, where I've done other things, because I didn't care to contest (unlike certain contesters I know, who devote their radio time to nothing but contesting). 

My Aologies,
Ellen - AF9J

[Opcom]

The only thing annoying about contests is the saturation of the band at times.
Because AM is used almost exclusively here, the necessary bandwidth makes it difficult to find a clear frequency for preferred activities during a contest.
Firing up between a contester's QSOs on the same frequency that the contester has just used to call "CQ Contest" is the same level of 'wrong' as firing up on an existing QSO.
The number of 'national/global'-reaching contests, which can and do plug up the bands, should be voluntarily coordinated and well-limited so that one does not find the bands filled up with contests more than 50% of the time.

[Steve - K4HX]

It's not about contests or contesters. It's most certainly not about ALL contesters. It's about bad behavior and heinous operating practices being condoned in the name of contests. Don't confuse the two.