I am out on a business trip and don't have too much time on the computer.
However after hearing there were a few e-mails regarding the petition, I
thought I would check in long enough to answer a few questions that I heard
were raised. I have not read all the posts but "skimmed" a few of them.
Please forgive any typos in this. I don't have the technological advantage of
spell check where I am located.
The discussion on CQ-Contest regarding the use of this technology which I
found myself in the middle of seemd to be focused on whether Skimmer should be
allowed in the single operator unassisted class or not. Arguments as to the
meaning of assistance focused on whether that assistance had to come from
another operator, whether there was clear meaning to a rule that was in place
for the CQ contests that indicated the operator was to perform all the spotting
functions and assistance of "Any Kind" was not to be used. It went on and on
with some saying that we needed to ban electronic keyers if Skimmer were not to
be allowed.
The discussions seemed to take place among a relatively small number of
individuals. Arguments were takng place between some who were active and those
who were not, questions as to what other sporting activities allowed ANY AND
ALL technologies to be used were answered with examples listing some
technologies that were allowed iin certain sports. Please read the last
sentence again if you do not see a difference. It had digressed into arguments
that in some cases did not even make sense.
By the way, to date no one has ever given a single example of any organized
sporting activity where they have allowed any and all technologies to be used
to the advantage of the competitors. I think the answer is that they all do it
when it is time to preserve the basic nature of the sport.
I wondered what the opinions were of a few CW Contesters who had not been heard
from - ones who had not "weighed in" on the subject, either because they did
not want to get sucked into such arguments like whether any and all technology
should be allowed because, as an example, approximately 35 years ago WB4VVF
designed the accu-memory keyer and it was not banned, ones who do not subscribe
to CQ-Contest, etc. I knew that it was only a few months ago that I subscrived
to this list.
A quick, informal survey of a few who had not voiced a public opinion told me
that there were a lot of people who operate CW Contests who believe the line
should be drawn here and that CW Skimmer will have a negative impact on the
activity they love most in Amateur Radio.
I am not going to list the callsigns of those who have agreed and make note of
the highly respected contesters who have signed. You can look at the signature
list at the top of the petition and see them. The last time I looked there
were over 250 who had signed.
If you read the petition you will see that there is not a call to ban the
technology, make it against the law or any such thing. The petition recommends
that Skimmer type technology be advanced, and allowed in an appropriate
category for RTTY Contesting.
I actually like the comment, although unfounded and incorrect, that there must
be unprecedented cheating going on having to do with the petition. It sounds
like there are some who are surprised that, with a limited effort in a week,
there are at least 250 people so far, many of them highly respected CW
Contesters, from perhaps as many as 40 countries who believe that Skimmer will
diminish the skills that have always been integral to the sport Perhaps most
CW Contesters believe that the line should be drawn and CW Contesting should
not be turned into an activitiy that is based even more on how well equipped
your station is and how many rigs you can sequence to pick off every signal
that can be copied by a computer.
The petition is located at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/skimmer
Read it carefully and only sign it if you agree. Hopefully, in this activity,
it is not cheating to announce the location and have it print the content out
on the screen - :-)
Thanks for your time. Hopefully this answers some of the questons that have
been asked.
Thanks and 73...Stan, K5GO
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