[CQ-Contest] cheating with packet

[Steve Harrison]

At 11:54 PM 12/12/2007 -0000, Kerr, Prof.  K.M. wrote:
>For those who wish to use it, the cluster is great. It is unrealistic to 
>imagine it could be 'switched off' during major contest weekends. Imagine 
>what that would do to our standing among non-contesters, who like a bit 
>of DXing, especially during contests. Indeed, we need to keep these guys 
>on the air chasing spots and maybe working us as well.

Actually, not too many years ago (5 to 10, maybe?), exactly that was done
by some of the major NA contest clubs that had members with their own
spotting nodes; the entire area spotting net would be disconned from the
rest of the world-wide cluster and operated only for the clubs members
theirselves. That would force those of us who weren't in the contest but
otherwise relied upon the cluster for other purposes to have to connect to
general-purpose packet nodes (such as for e-mail or to peruse the Want-Ads)
which often had so many others connecting to them that their speed was a
fraction of that attainable from the contest club's less-heavily populated
cluster.
 
>Please don't force me to use the cluster in order to remain competitive.

Amen.

Steve, K0XP