[CQ-Contest] skimmer spotting? club spotting?

[K1TTT]

> I guess something here still feels odd to me about this statement.
> 
> Case 1: Someone hears you CQing - and they spot you - and people see the
> spot and come to your frequency and work you.
> 
> Case 2: You spot yourself - people see the spot and come to your
> freqeuency
> and work you.
>
> In both cases - the internet is involved.  The information put out on the
> internet is the same.  The net result is the same.  The difference is how
> the information came to be posted to the internet.  You still call CQ on
> the radio - and someone tunes you in and works you.

Ah, but the information is NOT the same in both cases, nor is the audience
the same.  If you spot yourself using your own call several things are
different.  First some nodes specifically filter them out.  Second many
users filter spots so they only see spots generated from their local area,
so unless you want to contact locals it won't help much.  Now, if you spot
yourself with your neighbor's call, or your neighbor spots you, it would get
past the self spot filters, but not the spot origination filters.  That is
why fake self spotters use callsigns from their target areas to get noticed
better.

If someone else spots you, from some distance away, it has a different
meaning... from it the network users can tell where you were being heard,
and maybe that there is low enough qrm for you to be worked.  And maybe
other useful information, like you are deaf or something like that.

So while the frequency and call may be the same, the meaning may be vastly
different.


David Robbins K1TTT
e-mail: mailto:k1ttt at arrl.net
web: http://www.k1ttt.net
AR-Cluster node: 145.69MHz or telnet://dxc.k1ttt.net