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

[VE5ZX]

Tree

> The reason that we don't allow packet in "unassisted" is that many of us
> want to perserve a cateogry that rewards the operator for being able to
> find the missing multipliers efficiently.  We do not want this category
> to be diluted with people getting their clean sweeps with "help" from
> people on their frequency

I agree that dilution is a problem and current categories should be 
preserved. However, I believe that much of the discussion about assisted vs. 
unassisted is due to the general resistance of contest sponsors to change. 
Perhaps the intensity and frequency of the discussions about categories and 
definitions would decrease if contestants could have access to more 
information.

Consider the CQWW rules, there is only one class of assisted -- qrp, low and 
high power competitors are lumped together yet the logs contain the 
information needed to allow qrp, low and high power competitors to compare 
themselves with similar competitors. While the sponsors may choose to make 
awards based on the existing rules it would be helpful and encouraging if 
they would put the results on-line and include the information collected in 
the logs so that competitors can create classes of their own choosing.

Taking this notion a bit further and if more information were collected from 
each competitor about their setups then they could explore how they did 
compared to other types of setup that we might choose. For example, a group 
of competitors might wish to explore how different types of assistance 
affects scores.

With a little vision, some policies changes and a bit of technology it is 
possible to keep the current categories from being diluted  and at the same 
time open new vista for understand the art of radio sports.

Syl

Sylvan Katz - VE5ZX
Saskatoon, SK