[CQ-Contest] SS Reminders

[Leigh S. Jones, KR6X]

There are a lot of different answers to this question -- a number of 
different moral and immoral viewpoints have been expressed already.

I'd say you have some choices:

1) If your intent in calling "CQ VY1" is to enlist the aid of fellow 
operators to assist you in locating a VY1 station, then I'd say that the 
only possible moral view is that you've already placed yourself into the 
assisted class, from a strictly moral point of view.  Now, I'm not saying 
this to make moral judgements on people.  Really, all I want to do is to 
develop a sense of clear thought on the question.

2) OK, let's say just for the sake of arguement that you're still following 
my line of thought on this.  The next issue is: would it be correct to 
assume you've made it to step 2 (this sentence) without violating your 
personal sense of morality?  If so, then you can readily assume that calling 
"CQ VY1" and hearing the answer "VY1JA is at 14.005" doesn't break the moral 
code that we're speaking about.  You'd actually have to take another action 
before you violated the single operator category rules.

3) Then let's imagine that you just happened to quickly tune to 14.005 and 
called "CQ VY1" again.  Or, to be more specific, sent "VY1JA de K0HB" on 
14.005.  Would you think that you'd just changed operator categories, 
inadvertantly?  Honestly, from your perspective, would that do it for you?

4) What if it didn't work?  What if you went to the end of the contest 
period without working VY1 after the above occurred.  Would you feel moral 
in submitting a log in the single operator class now?  You didn't improve 
your score by the act.  How much do you need to improve your score before 
you feel morally committed to the assisted class.

5) Some of this reminds me of the 1970's and the KV4 multiplier.  Everyone 
in the SS knew that a certain KV4 haunted 14,080 CW all day Sunday of the SS 
every single year since time immemorial.  He worked all comers.  If you 
found the frequency clear, you could call him blind and he would hear you. 
You could call him blind with one watt to a dipole and he would answer you. 
And, at the contest club meetings everyone discussed this fact.  And, if you 
were to go to 3815 (in those days the 3830 activity was on 3815) at 0255Z 
and ask where you could find KV4 someone who had already run out of 
operating time would volunteer "Try 14,080, and be quick about it".  In 
those days there was no such thing as the assisted class, so you had just 
entered the multioperator class.

Well, I don't think anybody ever actually enforced that.  But, frankly, none 
of this impresses me as being particularly interesting.  The number of 
morality violations that are occurring frequently and have a greater impact 
on scores is astounding.  How about the real-time web cam advertizers?  How 
about the guys who play back the contest audio from their receivers in real 
time, luring numerous operators to call in to see how they sound sending an 
exchange at the other end?  How about the habitual self-spotters?  How about 
multi-multi stations who ..., aw, never mind.  No one is listening.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "K0HB " <k-zero-hb at earthlink.net>
To: "Ken Adams K5KA" <k5ka at earthlink.net>; <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Friday, November 02, 2007 6:53 AM
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] SS Reminders


> >
>> Operating Ethics:
>> If you ask someone where a rare section is transmitting (maybe VY1JA?)
>> then you are requesting assistance and are no longer in the single
>> operator category.
>>
>> 73, Ken K5KA
>> Sweepstakes Contest Manager
>>
>
> What if I'm calling "CQ VY1" and someone answers "VY1JA is at 14.005", am 
> I
> now "assisted"?
>
> 73, de Hans, K0HB
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> CQ-Contest mailing list
> CQ-Contest at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
>