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Re: [CQ-Contest] The impending demise of SSB spotting in contests - and

To: N4ZR <n4zr@comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] The impending demise of SSB spotting in contests - and should we care?
From: K4Sbz Stan <k4sbz.stan@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2020 15:14:33 -0500
List-post: <mailto:cq-contest@contesting.com>
      
  

 I am one of the “casual “ contesters. I am an avid participater, but not a 
challenger for top score. In many contests, I operate non-assisted. Although I 
frequently “run”, the panadapter on my SDR radio makes S&P very easy. While 
doing S&P, I often work stations that don’t show up on the DXcluster. I would 
really like to spot these stations, but the wording of what constitutes 
assistance prevents me from doing a favor to those guys.   
  

  
I would like to see the definition reworded to include anyone who uses spots to 
make a contact, but not someone who merely sends a spot and get no benefit from 
doing so.    This would make me feel more like I am a part of the contest and 
not an outsider.
  

  
Stan, K4SBZ
  
  
  
    
  

  
  
>   
> On Nov 19, 2020 at 1:26 PM,  <N4ZR (mailto:n4zr@comcast.net)>  wrote:
>   
>   
>   
>  Did you know that over 40,000 different stations made at least one contact 
> with the 8500 stations who submitted logs for the CQWW SSB contest in 2018? 
> Without the non-entrant, casual ops, SSB contesting would be a lot less fun 
> for us all. And why do the casual ops get on? I submit that for most of them, 
> the chance to work new countries, zones, states and so on are what it's all 
> about. And how do they know which stations to call, to achieve these goals? 
> They connect to DX clusters. Okay, so what? Well, as someone recently pointed 
> out, there has been a pretty steep decline in human spotting of both SSB and 
> CW, at least partly because on CW, there's little need to spot anyone any 
> more. The RBN takes care of that. But on SSB -- not so much. The problem is 
> exacerbated because contest sponsors tend to view any cluster connection 
> during a contest as evidence that the connected station *must* be assisted. 
> This tends to deter people from spotting unless they themselves  are, in 
> fact, in the assisted category. This, in turn, means that features like 
> N1MM+'s "Spot all S&P QSOs" don't get the use they could. So, what to do? It 
> would be helpful if contest sponsors would clarify their rules to specify 
> that stations entering as unassisted can still send spots. -- 73, Pete N4ZR 
> Check out the Reverse Beacon Network at<http://reversebeacon.net>, now 
> spotting RTTY activity worldwide. For spots, please use your favorite 
> "retail" DX cluster. _______________________________________________ 
> CQ-Contest mailing list  CQ-Contest@contesting.com 
> (mailto:CQ-Contest@contesting.com)   
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>
>   
  
  
     
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