[CQ-Contest] Is the Cluster losing its Luster

Paul Mackanos - K2DB k2db at k2db.com
Mon Feb 28 12:52:09 PST 2011


I was wondering if as a contester, how you feel on the use of the packet
cluster when contesting on CW.
1) Do you use a regular cluster node such as K1TTT ?
2) Do you use the Reverse Beacon network node ?

The reason I ask this, is because of my last operation in the ARRL DX CW
contest. My observations are:
1) Spots from regular packet nodes seemed have a very high error rate.
Either the person who spotted the station could not copy code correctly
(busted calls), did not spot the right frequency or had fat fingers or
whatever. Unscrupulous individuals spotting bogus calls, etc.
2) Spots from the reverse beacon network were much more reliable, along with
NO human errors. Not 100% perfect, but a much lower error rate.

Agree or disagree? Why ?
This is for CW only.

Paul K2DB





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