[CQ-Contest] Assisted or not assisted question (yet again)

[David Gilbert]

When I operate unassisted I don't use the internet for anything during 
the contest, period.

However, I find this and other similar responses to be very curious.  
You in particular have previously tried to define assistance as 
involving outside help with callsign and frequency information that 
leads directly to a specific contact.  I'm not sure how real time 
propagation guidance fits that at all.  I'm even less able to understand 
how callsign fills generated via SCP during the contest for a station I 
may have never previously worked doesn't count as much greater contact 
assistance, especially given the interpretation of assistance ("not due 
to your own efforts") you just gave below.

But aside from that, I'll bet that a ton of people use some sort of real 
time propagation guidance during a contest anyway and are convinced they 
are operating unassisted.  It would be interesting to see how many hits 
these web sites get during a contest, and who those hits are coming from:

http://www.spacew.com/www/realtime.php

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/rt_plots/xray_1m.html

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/today.html

http://www.dxzone.com/cgi-bin/dir/jump2.cgi?ID=5447

http://www.radiosport.ca/zoneprop/

That last one even seems to get publicized here on this same reflector 
before many major contests as a good site to monitor during the contest.

I guess a lot of this discussion just sounds skewed and even 
hypocritical to me ....

73,
Dave   AB7E

p.s.  Before anyone accuses me again of trying to stretch the rules as 
has happened here in prior similar threads, please reread my first 
sentence above.



On 5/30/2012 10:14 AM, w5ov at w5ov.com wrote:
> Clearly, getting information like this from the internet is assistance.
> Regardless of how narrow you make it, getting this information is not due
> to your own efforts. This will tell you that the band you're on is open,
> etc.
>
> I say NO. This should not be permitted as single operator.
>
> Bob W5OV
>
> P.S. This is my personal opinion and not necessarily representative of any
> contest committee I am a member of.
>
>
>> With great number of skimmers used by RBN I have developed a habit of
>> checking propagation on different bands by calling CQ on a clear spot and
>> collecting skimmers data.  VE7CC cluster software allows setting filters
>> so
>> that you only see spots for your own call sign.
>> Now I wonder would such a technique be a violation of not assisted
>> category. In essence I would not get no outside help in locating,
>> identifying and working stations in the contest. I just get accurate and
>> up
>> to date information about propagation which is basically more accurate
>> then
>> what I might have got with the help of propagation prediction software.
>> What is contesting public opinion?
>>
>> 73, Igor UA9CDC
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