[aprssig] CQ FD shame on you

[Jason Rausch]

Jim,

I have to echo exactly what you said.

In fact, I was starting to question if there was a change in the rules this year, based on how evangelical Bob was about the subject.  I thought just maybe there was a new bonus catergory and that was why bob was beating the war drums :o)  I went back and read the rules to see if I missed somthing, such as the addition of a 100 bonus points for a setup station.  I did'nt find anything and reverted back to my original assumption, there just isn't enough incentive to put up an APRS station for FD.

The truth of the matter is, FD is about points and gaining them to win.  Until ARRL recognizes APRS as a valid point gaining part of FD, I am sorry to say the participation won't change much.

Jason KE4NYV
RPC Electronics
www.rpc-electronics.com


--- On Sun, 6/28/09, Jim Duncan <jdbandman at earthlink.net> wrote:

> From: Jim Duncan <jdbandman at earthlink.net>
> Subject: Re: [aprssig] CQ FD shame on you
> To: "'TAPR APRS Mailing List'" <aprssig at tapr.org>
> Date: Sunday, June 28, 2009, 9:50 PM
> Bob:
> 
> Unless and until the ARRL puts some value on having an
> active APRS station
> as part of Field Day you're just not going to see much
> interest in having
> somebody manning an APRS station. We opted out of having an
> active APRS
> station by reason of only having 6 people in our FD effort.
> There was simply
> not enough merit to having an active station going
> especially since we were
> working hard just to keep 3 HF rigs active plus a GOTA
> rig.
> 
> I posted our location when I arrive at our site but beyond
> that it wasn't
> worth having to monitor a computer or another radio. Yes,
> shame on me but
> when I can rattle off 3-4 HF QSO's in the same amount of
> time as it takes to
> run a contact on APRS it really becomes an issue of logging
> 6-8 contacts
> points (CW/Digital) versus the 2 points I can get for a
> single APRS contact.
> 
> Now, IF I have somebody who is still APRS "born again" in
> the midst of my FD
> team who want to sit and do that all day I'm going to
> encourage them and
> provide the resources to make it so but when it comes down
> to taking
> somebody off of an HF CW/Digital or Phone station the
> choice becomes pretty
> clear.
> 
> When ARRL recognizes APRS with some sort of bonus points in
> the scoring I
> really don't see it happening. I'm very sorry to say this,
> especially with
> my 16 year history with APRS (I was User #1 in the Kansas
> City area, as you
> may recall, in January of 1993).
> 
> It is, unfortunately, what it is now. APRS has devolved
> into a vehicle
> tracking system. It's because of the
> least-common-denominator mentality out
> there. I routinely watch a bunch of dumb trackers running
> around this area.
> Most of the users in this area are using trackers or some
> variance: not a
> full laptop setup.
> 
> ARRL COULD make a difference, at least as far as Field Day
> is concerned but
> rewarding groups who use APRS and make contacts with it
> with the typical 100
> point bonus that they give to message traffic, satellite
> contacts, etc. A
> good move would be for the greater populace to lobby ARRL
> for what should
> ALREADY be in place. The scoring remains biased toward HF
> CW/Phone/Digital
> and has only ever given token acknowledgement to advanced
> communication
> techniques. Granted VHF/UHF transmitters are not counted
> against the count
> for classification but maybe it's time for everyone to
> start thinking of
> emergency communications in a different light. After all,
> that's what Field
> Day is REALLY all about. However, Field Day is an operating
> contest veiled
> in the guise of an emergency communications skills
> activity.
> 
> The solution is to re-educate the APRS community out there.
> It has been
> allowed (through no fault of your's) to degenerate into
> this mindset and
> it's going to take something fresh to put us back "on
> track." (no pun
> intended)
> 
> 73 de Jim, KU0G
> 
> 
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