[CQ-Contest] Cheerleaders and the impact

[kr2q at optimum.net]

Being spotted (whether by many others or by a few or even one cheerleader) does indeed
have a sizable impact on rate based on my many decades as a log checker in CQWW.  It is
totally obvious that the RATE goes up when a spot is made IF the rate is such that it can be
increased.

With the current WRTC situation, simply because the station receiving the lion's share of spots did not
"win, place, or show" in no way proves that those additional spots were not a help.  For all you
know, this station may have come been destined to come in dead last, but instead placed 
wherever they did.  Those with scores greater than the "spot-ee" do not care, but saying "no
impact" is completely (a) a total guess and (b) probably NOT what those with a lesser score
are thinking.

If anyone else out there has compared the rates of hundreds of logs immediately before and
then subsequent to a "spot" on Cluster (as I have) and can refute the last sentence in the first
paragraph above, I'm all ears.  

I also fully support Ward's position: Send in the log now and "analyze" it later.  Finding errors is the
role of the adjudicators, not the competitors (at least not until they've submitted their original log).

de Doug KR2Q