On VHF there is not all that much to be gained from watching cluster spots.
A spot from someone two hundred miles east of me, spotting someone 400
miles east of me, is likely to be useless. A spot from someone at the fringes
of my coverage is not of much value unless his beam heading can also be
spotted, and that heading is pointed at me.
There can be some value in monitoring spots to learn about band openings.
But then again, if those openings aren't to my area, they aren't worth much.
I think the bigger concern in using the cluster is the temptation to make
the qso "over the cluster" - the "Do you hear me now, on 432.125?" "Oh
yeah, there you are (wink, wink)" .
Likewise is the temptation to make digital scatter contacts using the
cluster: "OK, I'm listening on 144.280. Go ahead and transmit" "Nothing
heard,
let me now transmit. Are you QRV?"
The best way to get a good/winning score remains to have a good station in
a good location, and to do lots of CQing to drag up people tuning around.
Sitting around passively watching cluster spots won't win you anything.
73 - Jim K8MR
In a message dated 2/16/2010 12:42:13 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
les@highnoonfilm.com writes:
John,
I certainly follow your logic on this point. True enough that it's
difficult
for the ARRL to police some of these limitations, but I think the ones you
listed would quickly become self-evident.
For example, if an operator is running 1KW on 2 Meters and claiming to be
"low power", he won't fool many of his fellow competitors. Likewise, a
multi-op station (even one running CW or digital modes) would become
obvious
too.
Spotting is much more difficult to detect. Let's say that someone
operating
in the "Single Operator Low Power" category decides to monitor the
Internet
clusters during the June contest. He doesn't post any spots, so is
completely, 100% undetectable. But using the network, he manages to snag
five or six more multipliers on six meters than his nearest competitor in
his section. He wins the section, while his honest competitor finishes 2nd.
Beyond all that, what I dislike is that eliminating spotting results in
fewer contacts per contest. Period. Given the very real differences
between
VHF and HF contesting, I think we should do everything we can to make more
contacts possible. Assistance accomplishes that, and I think would be a
healthy change for VHF.
73,
Les Rayburn, N1LF
EM63nf
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