contest good or bad

hi to everyone not sure if its a good thing but im not a fan of this contest thing going on at the moment im not against it but it does take up a lot of the frequencies on 11m and ive noticed certain big dx groups will not speak to you if you dont belong to their group . only winners are going to be people with big stations and plenty of time to operate maybe just me but im not a fan .... your thoughts ? 73's Mark

Can't stand contest contest contest full stop.

hi Alan doesnt do it for me 5/9 5/9 5/9 but i dont mind 5/9 when its a must have dxcc ha ha   cheers Mark

There's plenty of empty space on the bands. Each to their own I guess.

73's Gary.

I think I'm with Gary on this one in that there is a lot of band space available to embrace every aspect or interest no matter where your radio interests lay.

Yes i agree plenty of space it's just when you are going through the band and hear a station "contest" is all you hear.

Over time 11m has got more serious,a bit more ham..
No issue with that from me as I do like a bit of dx but the ola ola,pepsi cola,donkey noises and the commandante/oscar do get annoying.
So for me a little contesting is ok...just twist the dial

too right its serious Sam you dont hear many 148's or old school cb's anymore even though ive got a mk1 jackson its easier with the hf and new radio's and as for them muppets they would go down well near me on 19   we got more than average here cheers Mark

I made contact with a station in the contest yesterday, after giving each other a radio check he then asked me for a progressive number.
I didn't have a clue what he was asking for

Hi Mike. The "progressive number" is the number they are in your contest log. If you take part in a contest, you would most likely have to submit a log at the end of it which typically would include call sign, signal rx, signal tx, and progressive number received and given for each contact made. The first contact in your log would be prog number 1, then 2, 3 etc.

Depending on the club and / or contest, the prog number importance varies. Sometimes has little importance. Often they are used to help verify a contact when judges are comparing logs. Sometimes not submitting a log sheet to the club will mean that operators you have worked will not get a point for the contact they have made with you. The ATs have had even harsher contest rules in the past.

Hope that makes sense, but I wouldn't worry much about it at the moment. I tend to avoid contacting 11m contest callers, but sometimes find they are in contest but hadn't made it clear in their call, in which case I just give them a unique number to make them happy and so they can quickly move on to calling again.



Mark, in answer to your original question.. I'm not really fussed. As I said above, I tend to avoid contacting callers, but they don't seem to take up loads of the band. It tends to only be the HI block. I don't think I've ever heard contests on other blocks. Something to listen to though when doing the house work.. beats listening to just static hiss 

Nicely explained there Neal, thanked & liked accordingly.  


The only thing I'd add is that if someone is calling out announcing 'competition' then it is best to leave them to it if you have no idea what the competition is about....

....imagine walking up to someone in the middle of a chess tournament and asking them how the 'Horsey-thing' moves, or stopping someone in the middle of a marathon run to ask them for directions.....

Their 'barrier tape' to the event is the word 'competition'. 


That said I have heard examples on Ham bands where operators happily explained to new licence holders who have interrupted what they were doing. However some are less than gracious but again, they're in the middle of an event and it must get annoying after a while.....that age old advice of using your ears and listening first can go a long way.


I'm personally not a big fan or have any involvement in 'sport-radio' but do respect those that do by simply leaving them to it. 

As Neal, (SangueG), mentions it can be enjoyable to listen to rather than an empty band and can also sometimes be a give away for good propagation conditions, so simply turn that dial to a clear frequency and shout CQ!

Sam, (Cozzmik), says it well - it definitely beats listening to "Hola-Hola....Oscar, Oscar, Oscar, Oscar....One Kilowatt" on the triple 5!


We're all lucky to have so much radio space available to us, more than enough for every radio interest or pursuit to be happily accommodated for.

Enjoy your radio.

Victor