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"The Russians have really raised the bar," said Glenn Biggerstaff WW4B, as he and others expressed strong support for any measures that would tighten the rules to discourage contest cheating and limit what some believe are excessive post-contest log massage efforts.
Others at the dinner and hospitality Super Suite organized by the Florida Contest Group echoed that assessment, expressing strong support for cheating counter-measures by the Russian DX and CQ WW DX Contests.
"I'm all for it," said Laing Batchler NT4TS.
One new item for Russian DX that had a lot of heads nodding in agreement was the new rule that requires exact frequencies for all contacts, as various contesters wondered out loud whether the ARRL and/or CQ contests would also move to use CAT frequencies, very short log submission times and more.
Organized by Dan Street K1TO and Chris Plumblee WF3C, the Florida Contest Group dinner was held a few miles from the fairgrounds where the Orlando HamCation operates, as your radio-sport.net reporter was the featured speaker.
Among those attending the reception afterwards was CQ Magazine editor Rich Moseson W2VU, who in an interview with radio-sport.net, echoed his February column which rebuts commonly held views that the ham radio hobby is somehow dying.
"We're growing now," Moseson said of CQ Magazine, "the whole hobby is growing now."
"One of my favorite parts of this job is that I'm always learning from the readers," added Moseson, who said his visits to HamCation, the Dayton Hamvention and other ham gatherings are very important to keeping in touch with his magazine's readers.
"It's a wonderful conversation with the readers and you learn so much," said Moseson, who has been the CQ Editor since the end of 1999.
"The contest community is very important to us," the CQ Editor continued, adding that CQ's extensive coverage with scores shows that is "more than lip service." Moseson said he's also looking forward to contest issues coverage by the magazine's new Contesting Editor, George Tranos N2GA.
The crowd of close to 100 contesters showed up from around the state of Florida and the country, as it included a host of familiar calls and names like Scott Robbins W4PA.
Robbins, who among other things is now running US operations for Spiderbeam amateur radio products, was there with his European boss Rick Westerman NJ0IP/DJ0IP, who was plugging Spiderbeam items at the hamfest as well.
The FCG also organized a mini-contest to copy both CW and SSB calls from simulated pileups, which was put together by Lu Romero W4LT.
Among those trying his best was Bill Kollenbaum K4XS/KH7XS, who drew some laughs and chuckles when W4LT revealed that Kollenbaum had a very familiar bust in his log.
"How do you miss your own call?" he said to a good chunk of laughter in the Super Suite.
Organizers were very pleased with the turnout, and hope it's just the start of a growing gathering of contesters at the Orlando HamCation.
"You're welcome to join us in the future, as we continue to try and make this into more of the 'southern Dayton,'" said Dan Street K1TO.
Along with talking about the development of radio-sport.net, the Q&A also centered NS3T's mammoth contest voice files project, which now stands at over 17,000 wav files, allowing full operation without a microphone.
