[CQ-Contest] Summarizing the Skimmer Accuracy Thread

[jpescatore at aol.com]

Skimmer accuracy had gotten much better, but it is certainly not perfect yet. The accuracy of the spots coming from the RBN are generally higher than those coming from human beings.

There are techniques for maximizing the odds of getting spotted by a skimmer, and for minimizing the skimmer busting your call:

Send CQ TEST and YOURCALL at the same speed
If you send your call twice in a CQ, leave an extra half space between the 1st and 2nd instance of your call
If you have a call that is often busted by humans, (ie, TN copied as G or C) use extra spacing to lower skimmer busts

There are techniques for minimizing busted skimmer (or human) spots from showing up on your bandmap/logging software:

Use software like VE7CC;s AR User to limit skimmers to those that are geographically meaningfully to you, and to spots that are meaningful to the contest.
Use the settings in N1MM or other contest software (blacklisting/available mult/Q window filtering, etc) to minimize display of meaningless spots.

When jumping on spots, throw in a little XIT dither of 50 -200 hz to avoid the zero beat lemmings leaping on spots problem.