[CQ-Contest] Opinion: SO-unassisted should not be using CW Skimmer

[Jim Reisert AD1C]

This weekend was my first experience using CW Skimmer (in a M/M
operation).  Boy was it an eye-opener!  The most important thing I
learned is this:

If you receive spots from the skimmer network, there is no longer a
need to tune around to find stations to work!

For the last two hours of the contest, I just watched skimmer spots go
by in the Announce window, which was already filtered against the log
of worked stations.  If a new call popped up, and it wasn't busted,
all I had to do was double-click, wait for the current QSO to finish,
F4 to send my call, give the exchange, and then ALT-F4 to return to
the running frequency.  If the timing was right, this could all be
completed in about 10 seconds.

I don't care if you built the skimmer setup yourself without any
outside help, and you're only getting spots from your own skimmer.  I
don't even care if you wrote the software yourself!  Taking a break
from running to find stations to work is an important skill which
separates the great S/O unassisted stations from the good ones.  In my
opinion, having hardware/software to do this for you takes the "sport"
out of Radiosport.

73 - Jim AD1C

-- 
Jim Reisert AD1C, <jjreisert at alum.mit.edu>, http://www.ad1c.us