[CQ-Contest] Bad Packet Spots

[Tim Totten, N4GN]

On Thu, 20 Dec 2001, Fred Hoffert NA2U wrote:

> But in number of cases, I grabbed spot immediately and when I got to
> the frequency there was another station running.  At one time there
> were two spots for different stations and when I grabbed them I found
> the same station was running on the frequency and that station's
> callsign was not the one spotted either time.

I had no less than five cases in the 10-meter contest when I went to a
packet spot freq and rather than finding the new mult that had been
spotted, I discovered one rather well-known and experienced European
contester running on the frequency.  The first time it happened, I thought
"oh well, the mult I expected doesn't seem to be here, but I might as well
work Mr. Well-Known and Experienced European Contester since I'm already
here."  And so I did.

But after the second, third, fourth and fifth times this happened, I got a
bit suspicious.  Isn't it interesting that this guy "just happened" to be
on a frequency where only seconds earlier a rare mult had been spotted?
Mr. Well-Known wasn't the guy who put out the packet spot, so it wasn't a
case of him spotting DX that called him.  I'm sure he understands that
practice isn't generally accepted anyway.  And it sure seemed odd that I
never heard any of those five spotted calls later in the contest.

I didn't keep good enough notes the first three times, so I don't have
enough evidence to feel comfortable making any accusations.  But if anyone
else noticed this same thing, perhaps we can compare what notes we have.
You can bet I will start making some better notes in the future,
especially if I find this same guy under similar circumstances!

73,

Tim Totten, n4gn at n4gn.com
http://www.n4gn.com


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