[CQ-Contest] CW Skimmer is a crutch

[Robert Naumann]

Paul,

As many have pointed out, we have had CW decoders for a long time. I have
great respect for those who, for whatever reason, cannot operate CW
themselves; but instead, they endure the slowness of these decoder methods
in order to make CW qsos one at a time to the benefit of other CW
contesters.

The issue with skimmer is not replacing one's own ability to copy CW to make
individual qsos. If that is all it did, there would be no debate.

The issue is that you can be operating normally say on 40m, for example, and
have a skimmer running on 20m, another on 15m, and another on 10m. The
skimmers fill the band maps for all those bands with all the callsigns and
frequencies of the stations that can be heard at your location with no
effort expended on your part whatsoever. You might also have skimmer running
on the same band you are operating on, and it is filling your band map with
all the callsigns up and down the band from your running frequency that it
can hear between your transmissions. 

Again, the problem is not with it copying CW for you to make one QSO; it is
the harvesting of callsign and frequency information and either displaying
it on a computer screen or filling your band maps with callsign and
frequency information so you can work the qsos it has located and identified
without you doing anything. 

Clearly, the use of skimmer is functionally identical as having packet - and
perhaps better - since it only shows you what can be heard at your location.

73,

Bob W5OV


-----Original Message-----
From: cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Paul Mackanos - K2DB
Sent: Monday, April 28, 2008 8:24 PM
To: cq-contest at contesting.com
Subject: [CQ-Contest] CW Skimmer is a crutch

I guess if you want to register it at $75.00 and find out it is slower than
your brain, go for it.
I downloaded it, looked at it, commented that it was neat, un-installed it.
Any CW decoder is slower than your brain, end of story, top cw ops won't use
it.
If you want to operate CW casually or in a contest, do what the real cw ops
did - learn it! 
Don't use a crutch and guess. Here is why I said that:
If you don't know the code in the first place, how do you know it is
decoding right?
I wonder if the Kansas City DX Club will let you use it in their DX Pile-UP
contest at Dayton? ( I would say no, they make you use a pencil and paper,
gee that makes you use your brain.)

Paul K2DB

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