[CQ-Contest] NAQP CW + Skimmer

[K1TTT]

> Although NCJ does not have an official "Contest Committee", issues related
> to the NCJ contests are discussed among all the NCJ contest managers.
> Often, input is solicited from others also. Final decisions rest with the
> Contest Manager for each of the 6 contests we sponsor.  For the Sprints,
> it  was
> obvious that the allowing the use of multi-channel band decoders made no
> sense because of the QSY rule.  It really came down to being an issue for
> the CW NAQP.  We decided to allow it in the Single Operator Class as long
> as
> there was no connection via the internet or any other outside source.   In
> 2009, the NAQP rule was changed to state:

So you DO intend to allow wide band decoding and generating of spotting
information by CW Skimmer and Skimmer Server??  

"Access to spotting information obtained directly or indirectly from any
source other than the station operator, such as from other stations or
automated tools, is prohibited,"

since CW Skimmer in its wideband decoding mode automatically generates
'spotting information' I would consider this first statement to exclude that
use of the CW Skimmer or Skimmer Server software.

"except as follows: Technological methods of copying information in the
contest exchange (e.g. CW Skimmer, code readers, etc.) are permitted as long
as all components are entirely contained within the station."

Since this qualifies use of technology as being for 'copying information in
the contest exchange' I consider this, in the CW Skimmer usage, to be the
narrow band audio only decoding of a single qso at a time.  This is
reinforced by lumping it in with 'code readers' which in general do not
generate spotting information and only allow copying a single audio stream
at a time.

Perhaps the lack of complaint was because participants took the more
conservative reading and assumed that NO sources of spotting information
were allowed, which included the wide band decoding and spotting modes of
the CW Skimmer.

David Robbins K1TTT
e-mail: mailto:k1ttt at arrl.net
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