[CQ-Contest] The Skimmer Rule Challenge

[ve4xt at mts.net]

It seems the only people now arguing that computer logging, auto-tune amplifiers or the like should 
constitute "assistance" are those arguing for the unfettered release of Skimmer into the contesting 
ethos.

It has always been clear, spelled out in many rules, that "assisted" classes refer to those operators 
receiving spotting information (callsigns and QRGs, not merely spikes on a bandscope). There has never 
been a mention of automation of the administrivia of contesting being "assistance". 

So to argue that to place Skimmer into "assisted" classes means that you must also place any other 
automated feature of a station into assisted is simply a red herring. The smart readers of this forum 
have not bought into that particular bit of seafood.

I am not anti-Skimmer: but I do not buy the argument that our forefathers intended to restrict the 
definition of assistance only to that information coming from other people. Spots are spots.

73, kelly
ve4xt