[CQ-Contest] Self spotting

[Tree]

I have always felt that self spotting was something that should not be
allowed...  although I am hard pressed to explain exactly why.  I guess
it falls into using non-amateur communications for facilitating QSOs.

Certainly, I would hate to see packet turn into an advertising free for
all - with everyone self spotting themselves every 5 minutes.  

However, I can think of a situation where self spotting might be a good
thing.  I was reading VE8EV's 3830 post after the SSB Sweepstakes last
year and caught this comment:

"Finally we got spotted and then the rate jumped from 0 to 100 in the 
blink of an eye."

Wow.  That's a big change.  Probably when the pileup started - it 
attracted enough attention that even those not on packet knew something
was up.  If someone is off in a weird direction and isn't able to attract
attention with their small signal - having a spot certainly enables them
to start making QSOs.

I wouldn't think someone from VE8 is likely to be a top ten score and 
the reason they are on the air is to give people a clean sweep.  Is this
a case where a self spot or two wouldn't be  bad thing?

73 Tree N6TR