[CQ-Contest] Improper packet spotting?

[Tom Frenaye]

At 02:40 PM 12/3/2003, WM5R wrote:
>On Wed, Dec 03, 2003 at 12:57:18PM -0000, W2UP wrote:
>> During the contest, I noted a W1 station doing a lot of spotting of 
>> stateside stations, many of whom were his fellow YCCC members.  As a 
>> result of this, one of my fellow FRCers started spotting some of us 
>> (myself included).
>> Is this an accepted practice?  
>
>I think it is cheating.  The only way this is any different than self-spotting
>is that the beneficiary of the contacts generated by this solicitation on
>the network is a club score and not specifically the station that generated
>the spot.  It is still a form of self-spotting in the context of the contest, 
>and I think it is disreputable behavior.


I didn't check the packet logs for Saturday, but on Sunday I didn't find many USA stations spotting USA stations.

Out of 18,000 spots on Sunday, I ignored those on SSB, or on 10-18-24 MHz, or on 6 meters.   Even including the 160m spots (where we missed zone 3) there were only about 60 USA-to-USA spots - made by 32 different stations.   Less than half appear to be of other club members.

Hardly the stuff to get all puckered up about.    A quick glance at Saturday suggests a similar amount.

Plus, it was the W1 station's first time using packet, and first time over a 100 or so QSOs.   I'm sure that the nasty comments I saw from other stations made his day.   

What's wrong with spotting members of your own club, by the way.   That's been done by all of the big clubs for years.   It isn't done as often in DX contests.  Besides, most packet systems allow you to filter the spots.  If you don't want to see USA spots, filter them out.

                    -- Tom/K1KI


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
e-mail: frenaye at pcnet.com    YCCC --> http://www.yccc.org/
Tom Frenaye, K1KI, P O Box J, West Suffield CT 06093 Phone: 860-668-5444