What happens when you cross an ardent contester, a former contesting columnist for CQ magazine and a lifelong analytic? You get a deep dive analysis into how many contesters are in the world and a ranking of the ebbs and flows of the world's most popular logging systems over the past several years. Tim breaks his conclusions down with supporting charts and statistics and a reference to work done by past ARRL CEO Dave Sumner K1ZZ who determined the number of amateur radio operators in the world back in 2011 (He estimated 4 million.). Join the show to learn how Tim looks at numbers and what he concludes. 73, Kevin W1DED
Who said it was? What a "pointless" comment (pun intended). You're out of the hobby with many gripes, yet you still look up, and comment on, this website?
Enjoyed listening to the deep dive into answers to many questions Ive wondered about. Gave up my tower/yagis in 1995 when the job took me to an area rife with tower restrictions. Then sold the aluminum off. 14 yrs later moved to a country home outside Columbus OH ( wish I had kept the aluminum but I only had one vote. the xyl had two votes re cleaning out the garage.) So I rebuilt the antenna farm featuring 52 ft tall INVLs for 160/80, and 2 el vert phased arrays on 40 & 20m. Then added a highly efective home brew 10m Moxon and 5 el 6m yagi on short masts. Loved contesting over the years , esp. with the KT36XA. But found reasonable success with my more modest antenna farm and have steadily participated in: 160m cw contests 6m contests CQWW CW ( and some ssb) ARRLWW CW ( and some ssb) OHQP and the occasional French Contest, Hungarian Contest. Been an avid DXer since 1956 and still looking for my final nine entities to have worked em all. (Last atno was Bouvet) Spent five years with the local club heavily into contesting, but as we got older and/or several key ops moved away, that period of great fun ended, and I returned to contesting from thehome qth. Bob W3HKK since 1956
Which aspect of the hobby did you leave? Emergency services, Satellite, Solar/Propagation study, Operating skills (CW), Technical skills (building, making, designing), software (WSJT, Packet, FT8), VHF/UHF chat, Microwave, EME, digital modulation development, DX, International friendship, local social interactions? There is more to radio than contesting! Give it another shot
Find a contester or a contest Club station near you and ask them if you can come in for a few hours during the contest, and see how it's operated. If it interests you, then ask if you can help out getting things set up before each contest. A lot of contesting is keeping the station operational and learning all about the rotors, antennas, and software. It is a lot of work. Most multi-operator contest groups, if they see that you're interested, might actually try to get you on air a little during a slow time, and will help you develop your Skills. Also if you have a chance attend K3LR's Contest University. That point you're ready to try to set out on your own and do a little to start out with on some of the major contest. I agree with most of the numbers and statistics that were being talked about. My contest days are behind me or even as a guest operator. I can't set that long anymore and don't want to.... .. However it certainly helped me develop my skills early on. Contesting will help you in any area of amateur radio by developing your technical skills (making things work) keeping your ear attuned to grab call signs accurately and quickly. 73 from, The K0UO " Rhombic Antenna Farm" miles of wire in the Air & On the AIR daily
Thanks for posting that video. I'm a stats kind of guy and I found his methodology data findings fascinating.
Nice video. Interesting stats. I would like to know what the best logger for multiple simultaneous contests is. I use N1MM Logger+, which is great for 1 contest, but switching contests is a pain in the butt. Some weekends I switch between as many as 6 logs, and it's worse when you start a contact and you are in the wrong log, because you have to wipe the entry window, switch logs, which is not super quick, then re-enter the contact. And the available Q's window has to refresh for each switch, and if you are in one contest then switch to the correct contest, you might find out the contact was already worked, and more.