One of the biggest shocks to me coming out of the dialog on skimmer is the
realization that people are routinely using CW decoders to do CW contesting and
somehow considering that "unassisted" already. Of course skimmer is an even
more information rich version of that, so "what's the big deal?".
I'll tell you what the big deal is...you shouldn't be in the unassisted CW
class of any contest (my opinion not a rule interpretation) if you can't copy
the code yourself.
Some will say "won't that offend those who can't decode by ear?". In my
opinion, no it shouldn't, no one is saying they can't participate, they just do
so in the appropriate class. Do wheelchair athletes feel offended that they
have to compete in a marathon in their own class? I hope not.
So to put an easy end to the "skimmer debate" all we have to do is say the
following: Unassisted - No use of CW decoders of any kind or DX alerting
assistance of any kind.
Clean, simple, end of debate on skimmer. Opens a new one on generic use of CW
decoders which I believe is long overdue....
Ed N1UR
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