First, I admit I'm a newbie when it come to contests of any kind. As
I've mentioned before, this was the first contest I have ever
seriously participated in. I didn't go in there planning to win
anything, just to have fun and work as many stations as possible. If
I win something, great, if not; I won't be disappointed. I already
got the fun out of it that I wanted. My 2 meter & 440 rotor wouldn't
cooperate so I wasn't able to use those bands.
Now on to the purpose of this email:
2.1.3. Use of spotting assistance or nets (operating arrangements
involving other individuals, DX-alerting nets, packet, etc) is not
permitted.
I'm not a lawyer. I think the above sentence is very clear. No
outside assistance or arrangements are to be used to work other
stations.
My conscience is clear, but I must admit that I didn't dwell on this
rule during the contest. I didn't feel a need to use DX Sherlock, or
even the DX clusters, because there was already a lot of activity on
the band. But those stations that claim dozens of contacts on 1.2 GHz
and above; you can't expect anyone to believe that those stations just
happened to be on there listening for you. Now if those contacts were
arranged prior to the contest, does that make them 'legal'?
I think that rule is antiquated, and serves to stifle the advancement
of other technologies. I frankly don't see why many of the tools
discussed shouldn't be used. The purpose of the contest is to work as
many stations as possible. If it's ok to pre-arrange skeds prior to a
contest, then what's wrong to arrange them during a contest?
73 de W4AS
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