The analogy tying changes in progress to a recreational sport that has the coincidence of relating to one of the changes in the past 2 centuries was a nice touch.
However, if there is any practical reason for contesting other than vanity and ego, it would be learning to become better operators. In doing this, we make the best use of spectrum in preparation for serving others as a partial payment for the spectrum that was awarded to us for doing this public service when called upon to do so. But, this debate will rage on for a few more decades, and then over the majority of the licensed hams will be dead from attrition, and it will no longer be a consideration for anecdotal discussion. Wouldn't the energy be better spent trying to capture the interest of younger operators who are savvy in current and emerging technology in order to perpetuate our survival? - - - Or is it better to make cute analogies and watch the average age of the Amateur Radio Operator go higher than the 62 to 65 years old that it already is today? Bottom line, anyway you stack it, any way you try to ignore it is that our inability to progress with the times has left the majority of amateur radio operators well behind the curve as far as technology goes. If the easy way is to continue honoring tradition because that is easier than staying current with technology, then we will get what we are looking for; death of the service by attrition. Hate to be so blunt, but I am sure you know the old analogy about death and taxes. So far, we have been able to avoid taxation on the amateur spectrum..... -----Original Message----- From: digitalradio@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Robert Chudek Sent: Monday, November 19, 2007 12:42 AM To: digitalradio@yahoogroups.com Subject: [digitalradio] Re: PSK63 activity! --- In digitalradio@yahoogroups.com, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > -----Original Message----- > From: digitalradio@yahoogroups.com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of "John Becker, WØJAB" > Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2007 9:11 PM > To: digitalradio@yahoogroups.com > Subject: Re: [digitalradio] PSK63 activity! > > > At 08:00 PM 11/18/2007, you wrote: > >It is not like adding CW to a phone contest because both RTTY and PSK63 are > > >keyboard modes. Phone and CW are not. > > Well just add the rest of the keyboard modes while your at it... > And please make sure you do add both the keyboard mode of Amtor > and Pactor. > > I still fail to see why psk should be added to a RTTY contest. > > ************************************************************ > > Possibly for the same reason that they started allowing horseless carriages > on the same streets as horses. > ---------------------------------------------------------- Yes, of course the older technology was displaced by the horseless carriage. However, when it comes to contesting, the horse tracks continue to support a sizeable following and they don't mix the two technologies during the races.