[CQ-Contest] Skimmer - Assisted vs Unassisted

[David Gilbert]

First off, I think Skimmer is extremely cool technology.  I think it has 
the potential to draw new (probably causal) participants into 
contesting, and I think it might help DXpeditions or rare DX run pileups 
more effectively.  If nothing else, I will almost certainly buy a copy 
of Skimmer for my own use to track and review band openings (assuming 
they ever come back) for propagation studies.  I hope Skimmer continues 
to develop and I hope it spawns lots of offshoots.

I think an important point is being missed in this discussion, though.  
Skimmer facilitates unattended operation.  Whether you're running 
Skimmer on the mults rig for SO2R or leaving the shack entirely for a 
ten minute break, Skimmer keeps doing at least part of your job without 
you even participating.  How is that not assisted?  How is that 
materially different from periodically monitoring a spotting cluster?  
Yes, we have SCP, and we have code readers, and we have memory keyers, 
and we have logging programs, etc.  But Skimmer doesn't simply make you 
(potentially) more efficient as an operator ... it takes over for you 
when you aren't there.  Enforceability is an irrelevant issue since we 
already have several rules (power level, phantom ops, etc) that can't be 
verified, but it seems to me that using Skimmer would ethically put you 
into an assisted or multi-op category.

As an aside, I find it ironic that some of the most vocal opponents of 
remotely controlled stations (where a real-time operator must still be 
directly involved) seem to think Skimmer (which keeps doing it's job 
even when you aren't) is merely a proficiency improvement.

73,
Dave   AB7E