[CQ-Contest] [NCCC] SS Packet DANGER, DANGER, Will Robinson!!!

[Paul J. Piercey]

True, but it's in the context of "assistance". If I offer information to
help you get a mult or make a contact, no matter how innocently, I have
"assisted" you IF you follow up on the proffered information. I don't
particularly agree with it but technically, it is true. It comes down to how
the term "assistance" is defined in relationship to the rules.

Yes, there can be deliberate sabotage but, again, only if the station
getting the information acts upon it. If you say to the potential assistant,
"Thanks, I'll get him later once the pileup thins out.", or something
similar, then there really has been no assistance given although it could
possibly still be inferred. Now, the likelihood of a running station NOT
taking that piece of info and using it to his advantage is very slim because
most ops don't think it is contrary to the intention of the rules. I
personally don't think it is either. Others disagree.

I feel that the true intention of the assistance/cluster rule has been blown
so far off course, there is really no way to salvage it without stipulations
by the contest coordinators as to EXACTLY what constitutes assistance, what
benefit can be derived from the use of the cluster and so on. I believe the
basic intent was for operators to make contacts without help by either
running or S&P; working what they hear as opposed to what someone else says
is on the frequency. Given the proliferation of the mega-station, finding a
place to run a frequency for a QRP or 100W station was very difficult so
they resorted to the use of a spotting network to help find stations that
can enhance their scores. This created the assisted category but some of the
contest organizers were a bit lax in their design of the rules to
incorporate this technology. Some accepted it and some didn't. Some called
it what it was and some pussy-footed their way around it. There is seemingly
no consistency in the integration of cluster technology into radiosport
rules.

Frankly, I don't think there is much in radiosport that is FAIR. People have
sunk huge amounts of money into these gargantuan contest stations for no
other purpose than to win. Is it fair to stack a QRP back-packer against one
of these guys? No, so they created entry categories so that
similarly-appointed stations could compete against each other but the QRP
station still has to share the bands with the mega-station and that is VERY
unfair. I don't have the skill or room to operate 2 radios simultaneously
(it's hard enough just operating one HI) so is it fair that others can run
SO2R when I can't. No, but it is a skill that I can appreciate and I don't
begrudge them that power. I do believe SO2R should be a separate class in
contests though, if it isn't already. It's all a part of the game and I have
come to accept these things and still just try to do the best I can with
what I've got and have some fun. I think a lot of the dissenters out there
have forgotten that this is supposed to be fun and not an exercise in
constitutional law.

What it all comes down to is advantage vs cheating. It's not that important
to my lifelong well being to need to cheat to get my name and callsign
published in CQ or QST but if I can do something or buy something or learn
something that allows me to get the edge against all others, then I just may
do it, buy it or learn it... as long as the rules don't SPECIFICALLY state
that I can't. This is the probem with the term "assistance" and the use of
the cluster as an assistant. Until it is clearly defined, this problem will
continue.

Just my humble opinion.

GL in SS Phone,

73 -- Paul VO1HE  

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard DiDonna NN3W [mailto:nn3w at cox.net] 
> Sent: November 18, 2006 12:10
> To: vo1he at rac.ca; cq-contest at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] [NCCC] SS Packet DANGER, DANGER, 
> Will Robinson!!!
> 
> So you're saying that if you're running a frequency with a 
> nice continuous pileup of DLs, Gs, SPs, IV3s, and HAs, some 
> DL says, "hey, turn your beam a bit south, there's a 5H3 
> thats been trying to call you for five minutes," 
> you're being forced to recategorize yourself as assisted?
> 
> Doesn't this open up the window for sabatoge?  If I didn't 
> want somebody to win a category, I could come up on their 
> frequency, and without their knowing it start giving out 
> callsigns of stations that he hadnt worked in a pileup but 
> were calling him.
> 
> Does that seem fair?
> 
> 73 Rich NN3W
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Paul J. Piercey" <p.piercey at nl.rogers.com>
> To: <cq-contest at contesting.com>
> Sent: Friday, November 17, 2006 8:32 PM
> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] [NCCC] SS Packet DANGER, DANGER, 
> Will Robinson!!!
> 
> 
> >
> > I have to agree with Bill on this one. Assisted is assisted 
> no matter how
> > it's done.
> >
> > 73 -- Paul VO1HE
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com
> >> [mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Bill Turner
> >> Sent: November 17, 2006 21:39
> >> To: Hans K0HB
> >> Cc: cq-contest at contesting.com
> >> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] [NCCC] SS Packet DANGER, DANGER,
> >> Will Robinson!!!
> >>
> >> ORIGINAL MESSAGE:
> >>
> >> On Fri, 17 Nov 2006 14:25:46 -0600 (GMT-06:00), Hans K0HB
> >> <k-zero-hb at earthlink.net> wrote:
> >>
> >> >I don't THINK so!  If I'm down to the short rows in SS this
> >> weekend, calling "CQ SS CQ SS ESPECIALLY VE8 DE K0HB" and
> >> someone pops on freq and says "Jay is up 7", that's not a
> >> "spotting net" and I'm not "assisted" if I pop up and snag the Q.
> >> >
> >> >Period.
> >>
> >> ------------ REPLY FOLLOWS ------------
> >>
> >> If that guy tells you "Jay is up 7", AND YOU GO THERE, you
> >> are indeed assisted, just the same if he were in your shack
> >> on a second radio and yelled it across the room.
> >>
> >> Period.
> >>
> >> Bill, W6WRT
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> CQ-Contest mailing list
> >> CQ-Contest at contesting.com
> >> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
> >>
> >
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>