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

[Paul J. Piercey]

Kelly,

That's a very interesting point. Be kinda crappy to be on just looking for a
sweep and have someone ruin it by trying to help. Maybe that's why it isn't
forbidden in the rules.

73 -- Paul VO1HE  

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com 
> [mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Kelly Taylor
> Sent: December 4, 2006 20:50
> To: Tree; cq-contest at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Another angle on assisted versus 
> "being helped"
> 
> Hi Tree,
> 
> While I can certainly agree with the thrust of what you're saying, a
> question:
> 
> 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.
> 
> Do ya work 'im?
> 
> If yes, then at what point does the "assistance" expire?
> 
> If no, then is it really fair that your kind caller at 3 p.m. 
> gets to deny you a sweep? (Evil devil's advocate mode on: 
> couldn't that then become a strategy to deny rivals a sweep?)
> 
> 73, kelly
> ve4xt
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Tree" <tree at kkn.net>
> To: <cq-contest at contesting.com>
> Sent: Monday, December 04, 2006 12:47 PM
> Subject: [CQ-Contest] Another angle on assisted versus "being helped"
> 
> 
> >
> > Back "in the good old days" of contesting, if you were not 
> lucky enough to
> > have a VE8 or VE1 call you, you had to decide if you wanted 
> to stop CQing
> > and go into S&P mode to find one.  Knowing when and where 
> to look for one
> > were "trade secrets" and sometimes you would find people 
> asking a VE8 who
> > was on SSB for a QSO on CW (using CW - down below the 14200 
> USA band edge
> > of that time).
> >
> > "Assisted" to me - means that someone - other than yourself 
> - gave you
> > information during the contest that told you specifically 
> where a missing
> > multiplier was.  You were given help in spotting.  This is 
> exactly the
> > same information that you would be given if you were 
> watching packet.
> >
> > 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.
> >
> > Put yourself in this position of a hypothetical case - you 
> work long and
> > hard and you finally get within 15 QSOs of beating WP3R in the SS
> > contest.  You spent 20 minutes of run time searching for a VO1 on 15
> > meters - and you found one - which cost you 20 QSOs.  On 
> the other hand,
> > WP3R had someone perform a random act of kindness and tell 
> him where to
> > find his last multiplier - so that he didn't have to 
> sacrifice any of
> > his run time to find it.
> >
> > How has that person not assisted him in spotting?
> >
> > Would you feel that this was fair?
> >
> > Tree N6TR
> > tree at kkn.net
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