[CQ-Contest] Casual vs organized "alerting"

[Paul J. Piercey]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert Naumann [mailto:w5ov at w5ov.com] 
> Sent: December 1, 2006 01:27
> To: vo1he at rac.ca; cq-contest at contesting.com
> Subject: RE: [CQ-Contest] Casual vs organized "alerting"
> 
> 
> VO1HE Wrote:
> 
> "Just as you CANNOT take unsolicited info, act upon it and be 
> unassisted."
> 
> I'm mystified by your conclusion.
> 
> If you didn't arrange for it, and it is truly unsolicited, 
> how can you be assisted? 
> 
> While I understand the intent here to do things totally on 
> your own, the reality is that if I was calling CQ in SS, and 
> someone randomly drops by and says "hey Oven, VY1JA is up 10 
> if you need him", I would not hesitate to go up 10 and work 
> Jay. How could I ignore that information? Why should I? Is 
> there a limit to how long I should ignore it? 10 minutes, an 
> hour... what if Jay QSYs up 2? Would it be OK then? What if 
> he never QSYs for the rest of the contest? Is he off-limits 
> to me because someone I did not ask to help me told me about 
> Jay's whereabouts? No way.
> 
> In contrast to that unlikely scenario, if I was talking to 
> one of my buddies earlier in the week and I said "hey Hobo, I 
> can never find VY1JA during SS.
> If you get on and find him, let me know so I can work him". 
> This would be cheating as a single op and would require me to 
> report as assisted. It would not be multi-op in any case, 
> since the other operators would have to be at my station for 
> them to count as operators.
> 
> 73,
> 
> Bob W5OV
> 

Yep, you're right, which illustrates how ambiguous these rules are and how
nit-picky things can get because of it.

Personally, I'm with you. If someone casually says that a rare or
hard-to-get mult is on my doorstep, it should be OK to slide up and get 'em.
It's awful hard not to and I would venture to say that most would anyway.

Unfortunately, it is technically "assistance" as alluded to in the
less-than-succinct rules of various contests. If assistance was defined as
'the active engagement in receiving spot information', then that might clear
it up. Unfortunately, all most rules say is "the use of DX spotting nets or
spotting assistance", which includes, in my opinion, the casual comments of
others **IF ACTED UPON**. It's sort of like... If I give you information on
how to rob a bank and you do it, then you're guilty because I helped you but
didn't force you to do it. If you don't, you're not.

Anyway, the best thing I can do is carry on and have fun. When that stops,
I'll have to re-evaluate my hobby activity.

BTW, not only do some contests force SO cluster users into the Muli-op
category, it also declares them to be HP. I can't figure that out.

73 -- Paul VO1HE