As far as I am concerned, Hans succinctly hit the nail on the head when he
said "If it points you to a QRG outside your current audible passband which
contains a new callsign or a new multiplier, it is assistance."
Personally I don't care if someone uses a CW decoder in a contest because I
don't think it provides any advantage over someone that does CW without a
decoder and expect in fact that a decoder might be a detriment to a seasoned
CW op. Allowing use of a decoder would probably help bring new contesters
into the CW fold and may allow them to improve CW skills as they do CW
contests using one.
On the other hand use of packet and wideband decoders eliminates need for
the skill of understanding propagation. I look at that as being an art and a
science. The two things that have kept me in contesting for so long are the
great camaraderie and the experiences with radio signals that I or we have
experienced over a weekend. Use of packet and wideband decoders is
definitely a science and I suppose that for those totally enthralled with
technology is an art, but in IMHO goes a long way in eliminating the art of
contesting.
For assisted contesting it seems that one will need to employ the technical
assistance tools to remain competitive, but I hope that the art of
unassisted contesting is not further eroded by allowance of such tools in
the unassisted categories.
With malice towards none!
73 de Lar K7SV
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