[CQ-Contest] N6TJ AXIOMS OF LIFE

[Richard F DiDonna NN3W]

I don't think I ever said that spotting doesn't affect contesting.  I said 
that my opinion was that spotting really only negatively affects a small 
proprortion of contesters.  Clearly there are several major contesters that 
concur with me.

I'm not a fan of spotting, and think that a lot of hams do rely on packet 
too much.  I don't.  When I operate assisted, the spots are there to 
supplement my runs - and my runs encompass 95% of my QSOs. When I operate 
unassisted, I'm still pulling down 95% of my QSOs.  The lack of spots means 
that I have to spend more time spinning the dial on a given band and 
checking whether every QSO I hear on the second radio is a dupe or not.

There are indeed a lot of hams who are doing little but point and shoot. 
But, those point and shoot hams may not be making any QSOs in that contest 
but for the fact that they can point and shoot.  I'd rather work the point 
and shooters (including the dupes that come with a busted spot) rather than 
not work them at all.

I'll also note that in this "dumbing down" phase of the world of amateur 
radio, folks are still setting world records.  Somebody set the 20 meter 
single band record in ARRL or CQWW this past year and worked THOUSANDS of 
contacts.  I'd be willing to bet that more than a few of them were courtesy 
of packet spots.

73 Rich NN3W

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Sundberg" <sm2cew at telia.com>
To: <CQ-Contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 18, 2010 2:21 PM
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] N6TJ AXIOMS OF LIFE


> At 17:19 2010-07-18 , Richard F DiDonna NN3W wrote:
>>I think the issue of spotting negatively affects only a small proportion 
>>of
>>operators - namely those who are single ops operating from locations where
>>they are the the only or perhaps one of two operators on from that DXCC
>>entity for the entire weekend.
>>
>>73 Rich NN3W
>
>
> I strongly disagree. Spotting affects contest operating in general and it
> is adding to the dumbing down of amateur radio. Building up an 
> "impressive"
> score that is dependant on DX-cluster spots has nothing to do with skills.
> It is mainly a waiting game and others are doing the job. Using the 
> reverse
> beacon system is the same deal.
>
> 73 Peter SM2CEW
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> CQ-Contest mailing list
> CQ-Contest at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest