Hi, both topics were on my mind for a long time now and i've decided to share my thoughts on HF Contesting and FT-8 in those 2 videos. I wonder what other hams think about questions asked there. Here are the links: On FT-8 On HF Contesting 73 and CU on the air Maciej "Miles" Muszalski SQ5EBM http://qrz.com/db/sq5ebm
You've made me really angry. Try getting FT8/4 DXCC with 50 watts and a vertical EFHW. How long do you think it would take? Well it's taken me since November and I'm not there yet. And no, I can assure you, it's not just a case of pressing a button. I sit there changing bands, monitoring the propagation, waiting and waiting for an opening. And then, I get a fab QSO only to find that the other party doesn't QSL, or only does it on eQSL which earns me nothing towards that certificate here at QRZCQ. I've got 47 of the lower 48 states. Do you have any idea how long that has taken me. Hours and hours of sitting in front of a screen waiting and hoping and preying, changing bands and modes back and forth again and again watching Pskreporter and hamspots to see where I can get an opening, how far and in what direction my signal is going. And a 'click' doesn't ensure a completed QSO. I have to get a 73 back to log it, and so much of the time I repeat and repeat and move on the waterfall and try again and move again and that 73 still never comes. Finally I've got 99 of the 100 QSL's I need to get that DXCC certificate. Hopefully one of those that haven't QSL'd will take pity on me and actually do so. And when I do get that certificate, I can assure you, I'll have earned it. Every single bit of it. "congratulate your PC or Mac for working those DXCC's." "No skills at all" How dare you! Sitting there in your ivory tower you have no idea how much work some of us have to put in, how much skill is needed to achieve what you can in a few minutes with your little bot. Yet I know how lucky I am to be able to put up a vertical end fed in my small garden. Some of us live in flats with no access to the outside, have only window sill antennas or a wire hung out of a window. You have no idea how lucky you are! You're a disgrace and your holier than thou attitude disgusts me.
Gooooood! You feel that blood flowing? Well if only i'd get a penny every time someone like you butthurts i'd be richer. As soon as your pms tones down i'll treat you more serious. Take a deep breath. Anyway. You might have a few fair points in your laments. I do know IT is hard with modest setup. Been there,done that. Still i dare to have an opinion like that because i honestly feel like the skills needed there are the same as for playing CoD. You need some. Yet they might be useless in a real war. Though the style of your reply could easily make me reply with" go and f urself you crybaby" but that would be rude, wouldn't it? So i will ,instead, honestly congratulate your PC the skills and you as its operator too. Your effort and so on. You and your PC/rig did a great job. Congrats for those dxccs.
Morning... now i have a bit more time to reply. I hope your chormones got all settled. Working 100dxcc on a wire and barefoot you say... ok. Kinda easy. Recently a friend of mine got it in phone/cw with a low hanging end-fed in about 7 months. Just remember that before i got to what you described as the ivory tower i was through the trailer park too. So... 110dxccs on phone/cw with a low hanging t2fd and a cb antenna, QTH almost on the center of the capital (QRM etc). That was just 6months after getting my A class. The next year 98 DXCCs. In my 3rd year i got me a 5 el yagi (in august) and that year alone it was 160DXCC. After that it was "easier" with a yagi. So don't preach me here about how hard it is without a yagi and a PA 'cos i've been there and done that and i did it on my own not as a button pusher and an observer of what my PC could and could not decode. Recently i got into 160m and you know what skills i needed to get LU or CE or KH6 on FT8 there? A skill to write an email for a sked, a skill to buy some wire on the internet , a skill to spread that wire across my land and to use a hammer to make a beverage ant. Oh and the skill of not falling asleep at night but that was not a problem as i had to get up at night. I needed no operating skills at all. Play, fire, forget. I do am happy for those QSOs as they count for DXCC but as a HAM i feel they have way less value than a "normal" QSO. The one i am very happy of is KL7 on CW. I also changed bands for my bot and also followed the grayline. So it took a whole loooooooot of skills to both turn my pc on, install software, run it, change bands... yaaaawn. My bot also repeated, repeated and repeated to get that QSO. What a skillfull machine it is. So again: i am glad i made you angry 'cos at least i can see there is life out there not just mindless, emotionless clickers I honestly congratulate you on your DXCC. Have fun anyway you like it. It ok. No go and read the description of the video.
Over the years I seen many ops give up and go QRT because of contests. When you work all week there is no chance of ordinary QSOs at weekends when there is a contest on. And please don’t say use the WARC bands! I gave up when I was working as I had little time other than at weekends. Things did improve, like no phone in the CW segment but not everybody sticks to that. I came back when I retired determined not to be forced off the air but it is still very annoying when there’s a 24hr or 48 hr contest. It saddens me that ham (amateur) radio has become dominated by the need to win that drives everything often in a very negative way. Newcomers seem to think they need the best possible gear and the biggest antenna and if they are men, the maximum amount of testosterone. I know things have changed in the 50 years since I was licenced, but if the hobby is to survive it should not revolve around contesting. I am not saying ban them but reduce the number and frequency to give others a chance.
I'd like to explain my emotional outburst yesterday (and yes, I apologise for taking out my frustration on you). I had just spent my grayline time trying to contact that elusive 48th lower State (Wyoming). The first time I've copied a Wyoming station. Over an hour I tried, changing my spot on the graph so as not to have to compete with a louder signal. He had a QSO with a UK station - one using a 110 foot tower with a massive Yagi on top. I didn't get the QSO I needed. Do you have any idea how frustrating that is? Then this morning, three Thai stations on 17m. After an hour and a half of trying I finally got an answer from one, we exchanged signal reports, I then sent a RR73 and . . . . lost his signal so I never got the 73 back. Did he send it? Did he hear my RR73? Did he log me? I don't know. Will probably never know. But I logged him just in case, with hope, after all, we did exchange signal reports, and for some people that's enough to qualify as a QSO. So excuse me if posts and videos such as yours anger me. So I'm still 1 short of the 100 QSL's needed for the DXCC award, and still only 47 of the lower 48 states. I'll try again this afternoon, hopefully the God of propagation will smile on me. Ali.
Ali, no problem. We all get carried away sometimes ;-). I cheer you and hope you'll work'em all. I know the thrill and i know the effort needed for it. I do realize how frustrating it is. Been there And sometimes still am and my XYL knows when it happens as lots of cussing flows downstairs from my radio shack ;-)) And trust me - polish language is very potent in that area. I hope You know that i mean harm to anyone by my video. It is a bit provocative but that is the point. Maybe one or 5 ppl will stop for a sec and have a deeper thought abt those issues. I too struggle to figure out what to think of that "new fashion" ...and being QRV for most of my life i have some thoughts on a couple of issues. Fight for that WAS. Try getting a sked. I did that with some states missing on ft8 and other modes. When i saw somebody from that state but could not reach him over the EU ZOO i simply emailed that ham for a sked a bit below the main boiling waters of ft8. It worked. I have a mixed WAS, 15m mixed endorsment issued and am eligible for 20m, Phone, Digital, Ft8, 20m Digital, 15 phone. Still working on my CW WAS and few more. 15m phone WAS took me a year to work. Awaiting propagation on 10m o get those 5 missing.
Quick update, I had a QSO with a station in Namibia this morning, and he confirmed the contact here on QRZ So I've now achieved the DX100 award. YAY!!! Thanks for the advice, I've emailed the Wyoming ham I heard yesterday and asked if we could schedule a QSO. Fingers crossed. Ali.
Yeehaw! Congrats! Never be - imho - afraid to ask for a sked. SOme refuse to but others are happy to help.
hi Maciej ,SQ5EBM spot on with both your videos. background: I just started the hobby (with license) last year. Proud to get the full license in the beginning (in Germany there are 2 ). I am living in the centre of a city with all the limitations (QRM, limitation of antenna etc.) Sometimes I am going to my garden at the outskirts , set up my vertical 12m long stick. back to the topic, I agree to most what you have said. I prefer to have contact with "real " creatures, meaning talking to other hams. Talking to someone at another continent is exciting for me. and I mean "talking". Just saying "hello, 73, " five and nine" is not what I like. Yes, contesting is for me mostly something I avoid. with my limited setting, meaning my signal is low, it is very hard to fight against the "big guns". These big guns do not appreciate having contact with a low powered station (portable) and seems to be mostly interested in using their big guns for getting as much points as possible. I think most of these hams have no idea what it means to go by bicycle to a place, set up a portable station, and trying to have a dx contact (with freezing temperature -like last weekend, minus 1 degree Celsius). Yes, thats trying for me, but I think we are living in total different worlds. For me, it is not much attractive to get "full Europe " at HF. (f.e. Denmark is just 100 km, Poland 400 km away.) What is the technical achievement to get one contact to every country? Getting in contact being portable with someone sitting on the top of the Rockymountains, that is, what I would call desirable. And having a real chat with him/her. and - building as much gear as possible by my self (antennas, baluns) and doing improvisation as much as possible. Just spending as much as possible is boring. You get a much better understanding , if you build, try and improve self made equipment and it is satisfying, when it works. 73 DK7RE
hi Maciej ,SQ5EBM spot on with both your videos. background: I just started the hobby (with license) last year. Proud to get the full license in the beginning (in Germany there are 2 ). I am living in the centre of a city with all the limitations (QRM, limitation of antenna etc.) Sometimes I am going to my garden at the outskirts , set up my vertical 12m long stick. back to the topic, I agree to most what you have said. I prefer to have contact with "real " creatures, meaning talking to other hams. Talking to someone at another continent is exciting for me. and I mean "talking". Just saying "hello, 73, " five and nine" is not what I like. Yes, contesting is for me mostly something I avoid. with my limited setting, meaning my signal is low, it is very hard to fight against the "big guns". These big guns do not appreciate having contact with a low powered station (portable) and seems to be mostly interested in using their big guns for getting as much points as possible. I think most of these hams have no idea what it means to go by bicycle to a place, set up a portable station, and trying to have a dx contact (with freezing temperature -like last weekend, minus 1 degree Celsius). Yes, thats trying for me, but I think we are living in total different worlds. For me, it is not much attractive to get "full Europe " at HF. (f.e. Denmark is just 100 km, Poland 400 km away.) What is the technical achievement to get one contact to every country? Getting in contact being portable with someone sitting on the top of the Rockymountains, that is, what I would call desirable. And having a real chat with him/her. and - building as much gear as possible by my self (antennas, baluns) and doing improvisation as much as possible. Just spending money as much as possible is boring. You get a much better understanding , if you build, try and improve self made equipment and it is satisfying, when it works. 73 DK7RE
I watched Maciej's video and I agree entirely with him. I think the FT8 craze is a product of several things. How do people get a sense of reward from ham radio? Not that many build any of their own equipment, people buy even simple antennas, matching units, and so on. So that is one means of getting a sense of achievement gone. The tendency for more people to live in cities means there is less space for antennas, and so less ability to compete with the "big towers and monobanders" brigade with places in the country, who also of course tend to run whatever their legal limit is. Another product of urban living, the hellish QRM and RF pollution from electric devices. Even if you could put up a tower in your 30'x15' back yard, all you'd hear is SMPSU or broadband rubbish. So what can an operator do to get a sense of achievement? FT8 solves a lot of those problems, so that is where people go. I am not defending FT8 - I think it has devalued DXCC, for instance. I think there are things that would give people enormous satisfaction as an alternative to FT8 - go and do POTA or SOTA. Portable operation removes all the constraints of urban life and the fresh air is good for you!
