[CQ-Contest] Why not BAN packet entirely in contests?

[Marty Tippin]

If this has been argued before, I've not seen it. Apologies in advance if 
this stirs up a hornet's nest...


What good reason is there to allow the use of packet cluster during contests?


I would propose banning the use of packet cluster in any way (either 
receiving or sending spots) during contests. Especially if *spotting* 
stations on the cluster was banned, it would basically eliminate the use of 
packet cluster during contests (no point in connecting if nobody is 
spotting...)

Please note -- I'm not at all opposed to the use of packet cluster outside 
of contests - it's a great way to find out where the DX is and/or who's on 
the band, where propagation might be best, etc. etc. - I keep DXMon running 
24 hours on my shack PC and watch all the spots that come in from DXSummit.


I can esily come up with a lot more reasons *not* to allow it than to allow it:

* Ops might actually have to turn the dial, listen, and use a bit of skill 
to find stations to work (a novel idea, I know..) This is not a "level the 
playing field" argument and I don't want to start that. But just think how 
much more true skill is required to tune the band, listening for weak ones 
buried in the noise than it is to simply click on an incoming spot and have 
the rig QSY for you automatically.

* I've worked multi-single efforts where I believe the packet cluster 
actually worked to the *detriment* of our score -- ops on the mult station 
were so consumed with working every new spot that came in that they never 
used a disciplined approach of scanning the band from one end to the other 
to find new stations (including the many that weren't being spotted). I'm 
certain a lot of mults were missed because of randomly hopping around the band.

* The opportunity to cheat is obvious, and apparently a lot more widespread 
than I would have guessed. Eliminate the source of this opportunity and you 
eliminate at least some of the cheating. We'll deal with the 3KW stations 
and the low-power stations running 1KW or more later.

* For those connected to internet packet clusters (as I believe the vast 
majority of users now are), a great percentage of the spots that come in 
are worthless and only waste your time when you check. I don't care if JA 
is working ZS on 10m, because I probably can't hear them. But the spots 
(after importing into the logging program) generally don't show the source, 
only the station that was spotted.

* For DX stations, the packet cluster is often more harmful than helpful to 
the run rate. I've seen many big DX stations comment that it's obvious when 
they were spotted as the pileup gets suddenly huge. Imagine what happens to 
the semi-casual DX with an "average" station who gets spotted and is 
suddenly overwhelmed with the pileup. I'll bet many of them just pull the 
plug and go do something else.


The only argument I can think of in favor of allowing packet is that it 
*might* attract more casual and/or inexperienced ops who aren't serious 
about the contest and only want to work a few new ones here and there. But 
keep in mind that these ops in general have less capable stations and are 
only going to be able to work the loudest DX they hear, which is obviously 
easy to find by spinning the dial.


If anyone can come up with more valid reasons for allowing packet cluster 
in a contest, I'm all ears!

73,

-Marty NW0L
  martyt at pobox.com


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