Flex Radio Dayton 2015 Marketing. The cliche of the "World Class" guest speaker.

Ken - NM9P

Burt,
1) When I was in High School, the Chess Team was also considered a sport, and a person could receive a Varsity letter for it, also for the "Brain Game team."  This was disparaged by the Jocks, especially some of the football players who considered that the only true sport was busting heads on the gridiron.  In my wider definition of "sport" there is room for many things, some of them are physically strenuous, others mentally challenging, all of them involving skill, intellect (more or less) strategy, physical or mental endurance, teamwork, and other attributes that are common in what others call the "true" sports.  Who would have though that running around the floor trailing a long ribbon was a sport?  Or curling - sliding a rock across the ice and directing its path with brooms?  But once you watch it in them, both can be admired for their skill and/or artistic expression.  (BTW, I was on the Chess Team for a season, but got bored, and instead got into Ham Radio and playing the guitar.  I did, however play baseball from the time I could hold a bat until I was 17 years old and too old for the **** Ruth Leagues.  I didn't play varsity HS baseball because I was too involved in Ham Radio, Music, and other adventures)

2) Nowadays, as an article referenced elsewhere in this post, the "signal report" serves more as a preamble to the more important part of the exchange and is part of the game, and accepted my most of the players.  There are many contests that have different kinds of exchanges, like the Stew Perry 160 contest, or most of the VHF/UHF contest that exchange Maidenhead grid squares, and Idea that I like, because the scoring is based upon distance in relatively equally divided sections, making it more fair.  The ARRL Sweepstakes has a very long exchange that includes a sequential serial number, power indication, repeat of the callsign, date of issue of ham license, etc.  It makes for a more interesting contest.  But Those are the rules established.  Other contests have different rules.  If they had a contest that required verifiable signal strength data in -dBm I am sure some would love it and others would hate it.  Some would find a way to transfer the signal strength into the logging program via the API and just read it off.  Others would say that this is cheating and insist that the operator should be required to actually observe the S-meter directly and give that report with no automation.  But whatever the rules are, or evolve into, that is the way that the game will be played.  As long as most of the people play by the rules.

Gee, I could protest that American "football" is all a lie, too, because they hardly ever actually kick the ball.  But the rules have changed over the years, some for the better, some to the detriment of the game, some for player safety, some for fan enjoyment.
But I still love the Indianapolis Colts.  (And the Chicago Cubs for that matter, so my intellect, or my sanity, may still be a matter of opinion!)

Some don't appreciate contesting at all.  Some get way too competitive and cheat (c'mon, it IS just a game.)  Others find it a great way to develop first class stations and hone operating skills.  For me, if I hadn't run some CW contests back in the early 80's I may never have gotten past the 20 WPM and gotten my Extra.  The momentary pressure, but insignificant risk of embarrassment, of diving in "over my head" in a 30-35 WPM Morse Code furrball gave me the psychological encouragement to push ahead.  I saw my copy speed go up and the accompanying reduction of stress go down.  When you have been duking it out in a CW contest or DX pileup for several hours, a 5 minute code test is nothing!

Ken - NM9P

Ken - NM9P

As much as I may enjoy the mental and verbal sparring on the subject of contesting (and my apologies to the group if I participated in hijacking the thread)  Back to the main topic....

I am sure that these two guys have assembled first class stations and that they may have a lot to teach any ham, including Flexers, about the adventure of assembling high performance antennas, audio clarity, reducing grounding and RF problems, designing the layout of a station for ergonomic efficiency, safety, and other things in general relating to operating a cutting edge Amateur radio station.

Whether or not you agree with their favorite way of enjoying the hobby, there is probably a great deal to be learned from their experience.  They have done things in the hobby that most of us never even dream of attempting.  Besides that, they might even be entertaining!  I hope my schedule will allow me to join the party.  Right now things look a little sketchy.

Ken - NM9P

Steve K9ZW

Burt,

Why are you being so miserable?  

I have gone so far out of the way to hint and encourage your participation on topic, hoping to help you not only "un-hijack" the topic, but to agree to amiably disagree. 

Some of this stuff not only will we never agree on, but stepping away it doesn't even matter.  

I value my radio friends, you included.

Wish you were imagining the possibilities I'm seeing behind this upcoming FRS event.

As for good/bad parts of the hobby, we're in a bad part... real bad, as we're not even on the air nor are we having a conversation that leaves either of us the better for having it.

If I've peeved you, I'll buy the first **** at Dayton.  My guess is that I already owe a few folk a round, and would happily include you in it.

If you can make Dayton, it will have to be another time.  

73

Steve
K9ZW

Tim - W4TME

It is time to close this thread.