[CQ-Contest] Assistance & Entry Status

[Michael Coslo]

On Nov 5, 2007, at 11:36 AM, K0HB wrote:

>
> I think (dangerous at my age) that the "assisted" category is for  
> single
> operator stations which obtain operating "intelligence" (callsigns,  
> QRG's,
> etc.) >>from the efforts of other operators<<.  That "intelligence"  
> might
> come from a spotting net, a cluster, <alt-f8>, or other means where
>>> another operator<< contributes information to your real-time  
>>> operation.
>
> It has nothing to do with the technology which delivers the  
> assistance.
> That information might come to you by an internet connection, packet
> cluster, a carrier pigeon, or on a diskette labeled "master.dta"  
> which you
> picked up at a club meeting.

	We tossed around the "assisted" definition this summer during an  
advisory board for the PAQSO party. While in principle it is tempting  
to simply say that "any outside help" makes you assisted, in real  
life, it just isn't practical. What we ended up with was as many  
definitions of assisted as there are Ops.

When you have this sort of situation you have to look at the big  
picture.

What is the method of most assistance?

It is the clusters, without doubt, and that is a technical method.   
Someone telling another Op that so and so is at such and such  
frequency is so far down on the assistance scale that the amount of  
effort to write it into the rules - and let's not forget enforcement  
- just isn't worth it. Each contest would need a very long FAQ on  
what does or does not constitute assistance that the rules could  
expand exponentially and probably never stop.

In the end, I could settle on the only assistance that could account  
for significant numbers of points, and that would have some ability  
to enforce. That was assistance is defined by use of spotting  
clusters and nets. All the other methods are just qrm, and don't  
really account for much. Did someone pick up a QSO because someone  
told them? No doubt that it has happened. I doubt it has accounted  
for much. And CQ'ing an area, state, county, or whatever is only  
assisted inasmuch as calling CQ DX is cheating toward DXCC, or  
issuing a  "CQ Contest" is cheating as compared to a general CQ.

It was very hard to get a consensus, and I just left it alone, to  
visit in the future at some time. I could spend all my time answering  
"Does (blah blah blah) put you in the assisted category?" Then there  
wouldn't be a party.

In the end, the Op has to ask his/her self if what they are doing is  
assisted. Those who use the clusters find that answer quite easily.


-73 de Mike N3LI -