Ultimately, the word "assistance" should have a very specific meaning: being
helped by another live human, whether local or distant. Most of our shacks
are full of technical devices of all kinds, which help us in various ways.
To lump any of them, including multi-channel decoders, in with another live
human is just silly. All that's going to accomplish is drive the use of such
tools underground, and make it less and less fun for those of us who do
follow the rules.
Multi-channel decoders and the like are simply tools, and using them is just
a different way of operating. They can just as easily turn into a giant
waste of time and effort as be helpful. The same thing is true for
bandscopes, SO2R, super check partial, bandmaps and even logging software;
the list is endless. These are all just tools -- useful in some hands,
detrimental in others -- and one op's decision to use them certainly doesn't
interfere with anyone's choice to use a VFO and tune around the band that
way.
In addition, if you're mainly running, and rarely S&P, your use of a
multi-channel decoder won't help you make any additional QSOs. However, in
that case, when others spot you, those spots can play a huge part in making
lots of QSOs *for you*, whether you claim to be "unassisted" or not. That so
many who enter as unassisted seem to deny this basic fact baffles my mind.
CW Skimmer Server and the RBN have *certainly* boosted QSOs and scores for
many so-called unassisted ops.
Personally, I want to encourage innovation and new ways of operating. I
realize there are some who don't like change -- and that's OK; there's no
reason why they have to use the new stuff. But to push those restrictions on
the rest of us is counter-productive, and in fact self-defeating in the long
run (and yes, we are pushed, there's no doubt about it). On the one hand,
the community bemoans the lack of new and younger participants, while on the
other, discouraging the very kinds of things that would attract them.
If the no-assistance purists really want to compete against other purists,
then the "unassisted" category should require a sprint-like QSY after every
QSO to minimize the usefulness of spots to help others find *them* -- and
"assisted" would be "everything else." If you don't want to benefit from
using spots to find others, then you shouldn't benefit from others using
spots to find you. I don't like that dividing line nearly as well as the one
I proposed before (onsite vs. offsite), but it would still be an improvement
over what we have today. (having said that, one advantage of a sprint-like
approach is that it's relatively easy to enforce on the log-check side).
73, Rick ZL2HAM / ZM1G
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