What the heck is ham radio contesting? (Ken's 'other life')

"Ham" or Amateur Radio is a multi-faceted radio service regulated by the FCC. It's an emergency backup radio capability for governmental radio services, as well as a technical hobby for those licensees active in the avocation. One of the on-the-air activities within the hobby is contesting, where events are held within a given time period (usually on weekends), ranging from two to 48 hours. The objective is to contact as many other stations, and in as many geographical locations (statewide, nationwide, or world-wide). Score is usually determined by multiplying the number of contacts by the number of locations(mulitipliers).

I have been doing this RadioSport since 1952, and am still very active. I sometimes have a problem with conflicts between my music and radio events! I estimate I've participated in about 1200 contests, and have won many, at all levels up to world-wide. My station was built to accomodate many transmitters operating at the same time, so we frequently enter a category called "multi-operator, multi-transmitter". Our team has scored well in many of those events.

For more information on ham radio or the contesting specialty, click the links on the N6RO startpage.