[CQ-Contest] Dead horse: CQ WW rules apparently prohibit CW Skimmer use

[Scott Robbins]

>The "assisted" category always referred to operators receiving information
>indirectly from other operators via the packet cluster or similar networks.

It does not refer to that at all in the CQ WW rules.  

The rules say (verbatim):

"The use of DX alerting assistance of any kind places the station in the Single
Operator Assisted category."

It doesn't say "The use of DX packet cluster, the use of Telnet on the
Internet, the use of 2M FM repeaters..." or anything else.  

It says:  DX alerting assistance of any kind.  

If I have a piece of software that is alerting me and pointing my attention to
stations on the bands that I have not worked, that I have not found, that I
have not copied the callsign of by ear - that is definitely DX alerting
assistance.  It doesn't specify WHO or HOW that assistance is obtained.  

Is a piece of software that copies callsigns and tells you where they are
assistance?  You bet it is.  

We can take the rules even further.

Verbatim from CQ WW rules:  

"Single Operator High:  Those stations at which one person performs all of the
operating, logging, and spotting functions."

Those stations at which one PERSON performs ... SPOTTING functions.  

A piece of computer software decoding CW signals is not a person performing a
spotting function.  If the callsign is decoded by a method other than the human
ear, that is not a person spotting a callsign, it's a machine.  A computer.  A
computer is not a person.  The rule says PERSON.  Not person operating a
computer that spots the callsigns for you.  

There are actually two parts to this discussion we are having on this forum at
the moment.  One is:  What should CW contesting be?  The other is:  What is
allowed within the rules of a given CW contest?   

Scott W4PA



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