[CQ-Contest] Self spotting rationale

[Bill Coleman]

On Jul 29, 2009, at 4:57 PM, Andrew wrote:

> It wouldn't be hard to write a few lines of code that would allow  
> you to
> spot yourself every minute, or 30 seconds or 10 seconds or....... how
> useful would the spotting network be during a contest if everyone
> repeatedly spotted themselves non-stop for 48hrs?  It would be chaos  
> and
> the cluster would probably fall over within minutes!


Would they? The spotting network has code that eliminates redundant  
spots that usually come from network loops. If the same station is  
spotting every few minutes, most of the spots could be eliminated as  
duplicates.

I think the problem comes from the older rules that stated you  
couldn't solicit contacts by non-amateur means. It was intended to  
keep certain well-heeled hams from padding their logs with mults by  
making lots of long-distance telephone calls for schedules during the  
contest.

However, the argument proposing self-spotting seems to have some  
merit, since the network is certainly easily accessible from most  
places in the world, and it would eliminate a form of cheating that,  
despite K1TTT's reports, continues to be quite popular.

Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr at arrl.net
Web: http://boringhamradiopart.blogspot.com
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
             -- Wilbur Wright, 1901