[CQ-Contest] Another angle on assisted versus "being helped"

[George Fremin III]

On Mon, Dec 04, 2006 at 02:49:39PM -0600, Kelly Taylor wrote:
> Hi Tree,
> 
> It's 3 p.m. on Sunday and you hear in passing the J is five khz above you 
> (say 14.285). He's the only guy you know of in NT on the air and his pileup 
> is good enough that he stays on that same frequency for the remainder of the 
> contest.
> 
> Your run peters out about an hour later. You tune down the band and snag a 
> VO1, no. 79. You tune up the band picking off S&P hits hoping to find 
> another frequency to try a run. You even detour to 40 for a bit and work a 
> few more guys there.
> 
> You go up to 15 and see it's dead so you come back to 20. You tune around 
> and hear VY1JA. No. 80.
> 
> You're just about to call him when it dawns on you: he's on the same 
> frequency he was when the random act of kindness was visited upon you.

This comes back to the post I made a few weeks ago.

http://lists.contesting.com/archives//html/CQ-Contest/2006-11/msg00535.html

Where I said that I hate it when people try to 'help' me in this way.


> 
> If yes, then at what point does the "assistance" expire?
> 

I dont know - I might be willing to not work it.
The sweep is not really that big of a deal to me - it is nice
but it is just one mult - I won't die.

But that is not what Tree is really talking about in his last few
posts.  He is talking about a case where I ask folks to tell me where
the mults I need are on the bands in the course of my operating.

Clearly asking for assistance is what Tree has been talking about and
one of his points is that in this day and age of the highly connected
DX spotting systems you have to be more careful about what you ask for
because you will likely get an answer.

And, yes the rules might not be quite up to date - but again we are
talking about the intent and sprit of the rules - and I think those
are pretty clear.

I have not been doing the SS as long as some others but, in all of my
years doing it I have never been under the impression that it was
*ever* ok for me to ask folks that I was working on the radio during
the contest where to find the mults that I was missing.  Indeed I have
always understood that if I did this I would be way over the line of
what sort of actions are allowed for a single operator in the
sweepstakes.

I hope I was clear enough - I am witting this much to 	quickly.

-- 
George Fremin III - K5TR
geoiii at kkn.net
http://www.kkn.net/~k5tr