[CQ-Contest] More Skimmer philosophy

Art Boyars artboyars at gmail.com
Tue Dec 28 06:47:13 PST 2010


W0YK said: "The sport simply requires wind propulsion in its definition of
sailboat racing."

Obviously.  But continuing the (risky) analysis by analogy, would sailboat
racing allow, were it possible, creating the wind to propel the boat, say,
by a humongous motor-driven fan?  On-boat creation might be too close to
motor propulsion.  But what if the motor and fan were on a separate boat?
Or what if you just stored extra wind energy in a big tank, and released
it when wanted?  (Hey, I did admit that analogies were risky.)

My personal belief is that the geist of radio contesting (at least HF) is
that the human op copies the info by ear.  (Yeah, I'd have to make some
allowance for people who actually cannot hear.  And RTTY afficionados should
please not take offense.)  From that view I do not see any difference in the
assistance from packet, from Skimmer, from a spotting net, or from helpers
in the shack.  But, as I've said before about these topics, my view is in
the minority and probably old-fashioned, and I would not turn back
technology.  I sure would not want to go back to spark gaps, keying with a
knife switch immersed in oil, and receiving with a coherer (how was anybody
smart enough to invent THAT?).

Heck, about 40 years ago -- when W4BVV (SK) would post-contest keypunch the
whole two-weekend DX Test paper log into some private main-frame computer
program -- W3ZZ asked "Could a [real-time] computer program that gave you a
green light if the QSO was OK and a red light if it was a dupe give you an
unbeatable advantage?"  Even the astute Dr. Z did not forsee the extent of
computers in contesting.

So set up the entry classes however you want.  Tweak the rules for broadest
satisfaction, while remembering that we are allowed to use the spectrum
because we can provide some public service.  If I don't enjoy the rules,
it'll be just one less QSO in your log.

73, Art K3KU
Tune for maximum fun


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