[CQ-Contest] Casual vs organized "alerting"

[Paul J. Piercey]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com 
> [mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Ev Tupis
> Sent: December 1, 2006 12:00
> To: cq-contest at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Casual vs organized "alerting"
> 
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Robert Naumann <w5ov at w5ov.com>
> 
> 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.
> ---------------------------
> 
> Great points, Bob.  Let's assume for a moment that a (or 
> "some future") sponsor actually defines the term, 
> "assistance" which includes the intent of "do things totally 
> on your own" (with "do" being the operative...acting on 
> information, not simply having the information given).
> 
> What are the thoughts of list members as to addressing Bob's 
> items above?  What are your thoughts as to a time-delay limit 
> placed on acting on unsolicited assistance?  I don't have an 
> opinion...I'm trying to form one. :)
> 
> Ev, W2EV

I think that you should have to actively seek out assistance, such as
requesting dx info during contacts or connecting to a cluster, to be
categorized as "assisted". This, as far as I'm concerned, is the current
'intended' definition of "assisted" when it comes to contest rules and all
the other stuff discussed in this forum, such as propagation forcasts and
SCP files, is not included in that. That being said, the time limit
question, to me, is moot. In reality, how many times does a station receive
unsolicited info about mults, etc, during a contest? How many ops are going
to be running around handing out info on a volunteer basis anyway? I don't
think I have ever gotten unsolicited info more than once during a contest.

Imagine starting a contest and running the whole thing unassisted. In the
last 5 minutes, a station contacts you and, in the course of the exchange
says "thanks for the new one. Wow, I just got a P5 a few kcs down". Who
wouldn't take a look? Who really cares that you did? Should you now dismiss
the fact that you just operated for 47 hours and 55 minutes as an unassisted
op? You worked a rare one that gave you a few extra points and now have to
call yourself assisted because you found out some extraneous info?

In the overall scheme of things, I don't think it's such a big deal. Have a
listen to 14195.0 during the weekday. I think that activity is far more
detrimental to the hobby overall.

73 -- Paul VO1HE