[CQ-Contest] Rule Change Debate on Skimmer

[VR2BrettGraham]

W4TV further tells us:

> > A memory keyer does not locate & identify for the
> > operator what is on the band.
> >
> > Nor do the other things that W4TV mentions: logging
> > programs do not locate & identify for the operator
> > what is on the band.  Neither does SCP.
>
>No, they don't do the same thing but ALL TECHNOLOGY is assistance
>in one form or another.  Technology assists he operator to be more
>efficient - whether it is to listen on more than one place (SOnR),
>send an exchange while listening for a multiplier (memory keyer),
>automatically correct an exchange (history file), automatically
>identify suspect calls (SCP), etc.
>
> > Unlike anything else that has happened to contesting,
> > skimming is the first to replace the operator in the
> > process of locating & identifying stations to work.
>
>Skimmer DOES NOT replace the operator - it merely provides a set
>of "possible" new QSOs.  The operator must still verify the call
>and make the QSO.  A local Skimmer simply improves productivity
>in one more area of the contest station.
>
>Skimmer is nothing more than technology already in use (CW decoder,
>broadband receiver, panadapter, SOnR, etc.) repackaged into a new
>and more effective format.

Again, unlike all the examples W4TV gives, skimming
completely replaces the operator in the process of finding
& identifying stations to work - vetting the product of
skimming does not change the fact that the operator
did not do the actual finding & identifying.

None of the examples W4TV gives replaces the operator
element to the extent that the operator is no longer involved
like skimming does to the process of finding & identifying
stations to work: memory keyers must be programmed &
triggered to send; the energy displayed by a panadaptor
must always be interpreted; radios do not find or make
contacts on their own; only the foolish log other than the
call & exchange copied.

Skimming is automated spotting assistance from your
own shack & like the fundamental difference between one
& more than one operator to the process of finding &
making contacts, it has long been recognized that there
is a difference between the one operator finding contacts
to make & one operator with some form of assistance in
finding contacts to make.

73, VR2/KBrett7Graham/p.