There are a lot of different answers to this question -- a number of
different moral and immoral viewpoints have been expressed already.
I'd say you have some choices:
1) If your intent in calling "CQ VY1" is to enlist the aid of fellow
operators to assist you in locating a VY1 station, then I'd say that the
only possible moral view is that you've already placed yourself into the
assisted class, from a strictly moral point of view. Now, I'm not saying
this to make moral judgements on people. Really, all I want to do is to
develop a sense of clear thought on the question.
2) OK, let's say just for the sake of arguement that you're still following
my line of thought on this. The next issue is: would it be correct to
assume you've made it to step 2 (this sentence) without violating your
personal sense of morality? If so, then you can readily assume that calling
"CQ VY1" and hearing the answer "VY1JA is at 14.005" doesn't break the moral
code that we're speaking about. You'd actually have to take another action
before you violated the single operator category rules.
3) Then let's imagine that you just happened to quickly tune to 14.005 and
called "CQ VY1" again. Or, to be more specific, sent "VY1JA de K0HB" on
14.005. Would you think that you'd just changed operator categories,
inadvertantly? Honestly, from your perspective, would that do it for you?
4) What if it didn't work? What if you went to the end of the contest
period without working VY1 after the above occurred. Would you feel moral
in submitting a log in the single operator class now? You didn't improve
your score by the act. How much do you need to improve your score before
you feel morally committed to the assisted class.
5) Some of this reminds me of the 1970's and the KV4 multiplier. Everyone
in the SS knew that a certain KV4 haunted 14,080 CW all day Sunday of the SS
every single year since time immemorial. He worked all comers. If you
found the frequency clear, you could call him blind and he would hear you.
You could call him blind with one watt to a dipole and he would answer you.
And, at the contest club meetings everyone discussed this fact. And, if you
were to go to 3815 (in those days the 3830 activity was on 3815) at 0255Z
and ask where you could find KV4 someone who had already run out of
operating time would volunteer "Try 14,080, and be quick about it". In
those days there was no such thing as the assisted class, so you had just
entered the multioperator class.
Well, I don't think anybody ever actually enforced that. But, frankly, none
of this impresses me as being particularly interesting. The number of
morality violations that are occurring frequently and have a greater impact
on scores is astounding. How about the real-time web cam advertizers? How
about the guys who play back the contest audio from their receivers in real
time, luring numerous operators to call in to see how they sound sending an
exchange at the other end? How about the habitual self-spotters? How about
multi-multi stations who ..., aw, never mind. No one is listening.
----- Original Message -----
From: "K0HB " <k-zero-hb@earthlink.net>
To: "Ken Adams K5KA" <k5ka@earthlink.net>; <cq-contest@contesting.com>
Sent: Friday, November 02, 2007 6:53 AM
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] SS Reminders
> >
>> Operating Ethics:
>> If you ask someone where a rare section is transmitting (maybe VY1JA?)
>> then you are requesting assistance and are no longer in the single
>> operator category.
>>
>> 73, Ken K5KA
>> Sweepstakes Contest Manager
>>
>
> What if I'm calling "CQ VY1" and someone answers "VY1JA is at 14.005", am
> I
> now "assisted"?
>
> 73, de Hans, K0HB
>
>
>
>
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> CQ-Contest@contesting.com
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