[CQ-Contest] Determining ASSISTED vs NON-ASSISTED -- was: =>RE: Cheating and bad journalism

[JVarney]

Collins, Graham <CollinG at navcanada.ca> wrote:

"Seems to me that ASSISTED or NOT-ASSISTED is splitting hairs - some choose to use a tool and others not, much the same as some choose to log on a computer and others on paper. Perhaps there needs to be categories for "COMPUTER LOGGED" and another for "PAPER LOGGED"; after all, those that choose to log on a computer have an unfair advantage over those that choose to log on paper."


I agree. An example of hair splitting centers around the use of panadapters and bandscopes. If you have a panadapter showing 180 kHz of spectrum in real time without Skimmer, it's deemed Unassisted. If Skimmer is turned on, it's Assisted. Regardless of what the rules say, I personally think a panadapter (with or without Skimmer) is a technological assist to the operator and provides quite an advantage over manual tuning. Seeing a new signal and clicking on it is a lot faster and easier than turning a VFO dial blind.

Maybe what could be done is to have two categories: Single Operator, where all tools such as Skimmer, clusters, panadapters, etc. are permitted; and Single Operator Traditional Radio, where manual VFO tuning is required and human, visual band display, internet, and packet assistance are all prohibited.

73 Jim K6OK