[CQ-Contest] Rule Change Debate on Skimmer

[Steve London]

On Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 5:01 AM, Pete Smith <n4zr at contesting.com> wrote:

> In this week's radio-sport.net newsletter, there is an excellent article
> on
> the current deliberations about how to handle CW Skimmer in contest rules
> (http://www.radio-sport.net/skimmer1.htm).  According to the article, ARRL
> and CQ rule-makers are in contact, and are leaning toward putting Skimmer
> in the Assisted category.
>
> I can appreciate their dilemma, but hope that they will think carefully
> about this.  I am posting this here because I don't know who to write,
> specifically, but I know it is likely they will read it here.
>
> Take Sweepstakes and CQWW as examples.  The most prestigious category, by
> far, is single-op unassisted.  If CW Skimmer is banned in this category,
> the temptation to cheat will be almost overwhelming.  In SS, 50 additional
> QSOs over the last 12 hours can make the difference between finishing
> fifth
> or first.  In CQWW, an extra 75-100 multipliers would be a similarly huge
> advantage.
>
> The problem is that it will be almost impossible to detect a decisive
> level
> of cheating.  The statistical methods used to detect packet cheaters
> simply
> won't work.


Bzzzt.

With several network skimmers located at various places, all feeding their
telnet outputs to a single database, the same statistical methods used to
detect packet cheaters can be used to detect skimmer cheaters.


> In SS, I would use Skimmer to fill the bandmaps (in my contest logger) for
> all the bands that are open at my QTH.  Then I would choose the one with
> the most activity, and go either from the bottom down or the top up,
> working the stations on the bandmap with my second radio.  The pattern of
> operation this would produce, for any log-based analysis, would be
> indistinguishable from what a good unassisted single-op would do.


And indistiguishable from a packet cheater

If skimmers (and packet) are such an "advantage", then why do the single-op
unassisted guys almost always beat the assisted guys ?  The usual guys who
operate assisted - K3WW, KI1G, K6LL, etc., aren't exactly slouches using
inferior stations.


73,
Steve, N2IC