Why Contesting Is A Good Thing

Why Contesting Is A Good Thing

The topic of amateur radio contesting (also known as Radiosport in some countries) can be a contentious one with wildly divergent opinions. There are many (both newbies and Elmers) who think poorly of contests. I have seen opinions expressed on social media (and sometimes over the air) of how contests take up almost the entire bandwidth (this not true, though) and how they cannot rag-chew on contest days as they can on other days, even though the topics of most rag-chews are either pedantic or, not unoften, pertaining to bodily ailments.

I like contests but I am not a big-time contester with multiple operators and transmitters, kilowatt amps, and expensive antenna farms. My set-up is simple. 100 watts barefoot. And I work solo with a single transmitter. In other words, I’m not a die-hard contester, though there is nothing against being one.

I participate in amateur radio contests for the fun of it. And generally, I am competing against myself.  I’d like to share a few reasons why you ought to give contesting a shot if you haven’t yet.

For those who are new to ham radio, contesting is a great way to hone your skills and adopt routines that work and emulate habits that are the general norm.

For example, the use of standard phonetics. It is well-nigh impossible to very quickly exchange callsigns if the two stations used alphabets or non-standard phonetics, especially when working DX stations whose alphabets are different. After a few contests, you adopt, maybe unconsciously, standard phonetics as your norm.

Everything happens lightning fast during a contest and there is little time to waste. When you hear stations calling “QRZ” or “CQ contest” without their accompanying callsign and see other stations moving on, you quickly learn how important it is to add your callsign when calling “QRZ” (or even plain “CQ”) and you might even swear not to ever repeat that irritating habit.

When you come across a station that manages its QSOs in a skilled manner without having to either repeat its call or ask for the other’s a second time, you learn by example to call clearly and listen attentively. It is amazing how much a contest can sharpen your skills.

You will even take your QSOs to the next level as you listen and learn from experienced stations that perfectly time their calls between gaps. You will also quickly learn

from the pros to avoid superfluous expressions like “please copy”.

For newbies the biggest attraction is likely the opportunity that contests give to increase your DXCC or other counts by leaps and bounds through contests. A good percentage of contesters will upload their logs to online QSL platforms like LoTW, QRZ.com, eQSL.cc, or Club Log soon after submitting their contest logs to the organizer. Since contest logs need to be submitted before the deadline, it is very likely that log uploads to online platforms will also happen soon after the contest is over. No waiting for months or for over a year.

There is also the incentive of fancy awards from various corners of the globe. And these are totally free, unlike other awards which have a cost to them. Since contests are reconciled in a “double-blind” manner, the levels of accuracy and reliability are the highest.

Most of all, there is the spirit of friendly competition. And who does not like that?

So what’s in it for those who are not newbies but Elmers or close to that hallowed level? As we all know, a sizeable chunk of amateur radio operators falls into the older (retiree) category, myself included.One of the issues that we face as we grow older, in addition to loss of physical ability, is declining mental prowess. Doctors recommend mind games on our phones or computers to keep ourselves mentally agile.

But the best way to stay sharp and retain mental acuity – if you are an amateur radio operator – is to participate in contests.

Here are 10 reasons why.

 

• Contests are fast paced. You need to be on your toes. But there is nothing to lose if you miss a few.
• One needs to listen attentively to stations, especially with widely different accents and languages. Contests are the best exercise for keeping your hearing sharp.
• Related to hearing, is comprehension. You need to grasp the information quickly and correctly, not just hear it.
• You need to respond verbally. Nothing like contesting to prevent your speech from slowing down as you race from one QSO to the next.
• It is not just a matter of responding quickly. Clarity of speech is important too when conveying your callsign to the other station (often in a foreign country speaking a foreign language, as stated earlier).
• One of the tests that doctors run on us older folk is short term memory. During a contest, you need to remember and recall correctly the other station’s callsign verbally. The reinforcement is immediate. Not only that, the other call has to be correctly entered in the log. What better mental exercise can there be than this!
• There is also the mind-hand coordination necessary to navigate constantly from the mic to the computer and back again cyclically, while all the while listening on the headphones.
• Your mind is perforce compelled to be fully focused on the task at hand while you are contesting. It cannot afford to wander.
• And there is no public humiliation of any kind unlike other competitions or even working out at the gym. At the end of the contest, it is entirely up to you whether to turn in your log or not.
• As I said before, more than anything else, amateur radio contests are as much competing against oneself as against others.

In short, contesting for senior folk is not only fun but can also therapeutic. And for newer hams it is a great hands-on learning experience like no other.

The old saying that it is not winning or losing that matters but how you play the game was never truer than with amateur radio contesting!

Good luck and 73 de AB1F – VU2ABE – EK/AB1F – A52AA