Is anyone else with a contesting.com alias getting a sudden flurry of spam? The messages purport to come from well-known retailers like Sears, Kohl's, Costco, etc., and try to get you to complete a s
Thanks to Dick, W3OA and Felipe, PY1NB, we've just made some improvements to the RBN, mostly revolving around the patt3ch.lst file, which is used to determine how "skeptical" a Skimmer should be abou
Just a reminder - if you plan to field a new prefix this weekend - one that has seldom or never been used before - and you want to be sure to be treated equally with established prefixes in terms of
Got me scratching my head. Why would anyone watch DX Summit for real-time use during a contest, instead of connecting to a cluster node? 73, Pete N4ZR Check out the Reverse Beacon Network at <http://
I hate to change the subject, but why not put the fear of being caught to work on curbing power cheating? Just like a few speeding tickets on a road can deter speeding to some degree, spotchecks that
Vince, if someone showed up at your door, identified himself, and showed you a letter from the contest committee asking him to visit you during the contest, would you really refuse him entry? 73, Pet
I'm working on a survey of assisted contesters right now, looking for the answer to just this question. Stay tuned. 73, Pete N4ZR Check out the Reverse Beacon Network at <http://reversebeacon.net>, n
I don't really think the paucity of RBN receivers in easy range is the answer - we have active skimmers in Singapore, Malaysia, India, several in JA, and several in China (including one near Shenzhen
This genie is well and thoroughly out of the bottle, Hans. Just as traditional spotting on VHF evolved into packet radio evolved into Internet clusters, the RBN was an inevitable outgrowth of technol
It's worth remembering that this discussion started out with the premise that stations CQing on two different frequencies in the same band represented a wasteful use of spectrum that, in the long run
I'm sorry for the off-topic question, but can't find a good reflector for this one, and I figured this diverse group was most likely to have answers. Please feel free to reply off-list. 10-plus years
Thanks to everyone pointing me to articles on ATX power supplies as bench supplies. Mine is a very oldAT supply, but I'm hoping that the same principles apply to it. 73, Pete N4ZR Check out the Rever
The reference is in Part 3 of the ARRL General Contest Rules: "3.5.A transmitter used to contact one or more stations may not be subsequently used under any other call during the contest period, exce
Bravo, Mike. Let me extend the thought a bit further. The CQWW Committee needs to be transparent and specific about its criteria for various actions. What warrants a warning, versus what warrants a D
Please note, I said *criteria.* It would be a simple table, like What gets you a warning. 1-5 solicited or self spots 1-5 10-minute rule violations What gets you a DQ the first time. More than 5 self
I'm with Mike. Warnings shouldn't be publicized, but if someone is listed as DQ, then any "shaming" has already been done, so putting the specific violation alongside the call would be a pretty cost-
I have no problem with that, Tim, but continue to think that it would enhance the committee's credibility if they named the infraction that did result in the DQ. It's not unlike the tax evasion cases
One very clever approach to this problem is incorporated in the freeware Viewprop by ZL2HAM. It lets you set the radius of a circle around your QTH so that only spots TO or FROM inside that circle ar
Absolutely - and the rules will try to define what human consciousness really is. Maybe they'll attempt something like "using blood for energy source and neuron I/O." Lotsa luck. 73, Pete N4ZR Check
We all agree, I think, that casual participants are a critical part of the total workable population in contests. I spent the first 40 years of my contesting career working contests as a quick and re