[CQ-Contest] Why we spot rivals

[Roberts, Will]

I have thought about the "spotting rivals" phenomenon as well. I think
it comes down to the fact that even though we love to compete, the
friendships and fraternity of contesting ultimately are more important.
Look at the rivalry between PVRC and NCCC in Sweepstakes. We spot each
other hundreds of times during the contests, even though it's "aiding
the enemy". I was never more proud of our club as when PVRC gave up the
SS gavel to NCCC last year because of the out-of-circle scores. This
showed what the true spirit of contesting is about for me. While I hope
that we can prevail against NCCC this year to take back that gavel, the
bottom line is that I view the NCCC as a great organization and have
many friends there.
Other evidences of this spirit: 
The free and open technical exchanges between contesters... There are
very few competitive endeavors in which a rival will school you at no
cost about how to beat him. 
Sharing of new technologies - Packetcluster was developed by AK1A and
others in YCCC. It was shared with contesters. Computer logging - K1EA,
N6TR, N1MM, K8CC and others worked to bring more efficient logging
techniques that they could have kept to themselves to selfishly increase
their own scores, but didn't. SO2R technology and techniques and antenna
design are others that come to mind.
Assistance with station building - KC1XX does antenna work for K3LR for
example. We see many examples of this all around us. Many of the biggest
contest rivals are the biggest friends outside the contest. This is good
for us all.
73, 
Will AA4NC W4MR 


>I have been trying to understand why a group as seemingly competitive
as 
>contesters would even think of spotting stuff for their rivals to
benefit 
>from. They spend small (or large) fortunes setting up hugely elaborate 
>stations in order to beat "the other guy" and then turn around and tell
"the 
>other guy" where the points are.
>So far, I have narrowed it down to bragging (Hey! Look what I worked!)
and 
>back-scratching (I'll spot stuff for you if you spot stuff for me).
Maybe a 
>combination of both. 
>73 -- Paul VO1HE