[CQ-Contest] Non-assisted & Assisted

[Michael Adams]

I wonder if that's really the right way to interpret those figures.

I wonder (and this is pure speculation on my part) if the higher rate of
assistance among high power users might be related somehow to what
operators do to maximize score.

If you are serious about maximizing score, you are more likely to be
tempted to use additional tools at your resource, be it the use of amps,
stacks of antennas, SO2R, and the clusters.

If you are playing just for fun, perhaps you are less likely to pursue such
tactics.

Those are imperfect correlations.  I realize there are reasons beyond being
competitive / maximizing score that one might or might not choose to use
the cluster, operate at high power, etc....but perhaps those correlations
are just strong enough to help explain the differences.

I am one of the folks who play just for fun.  With one or two exceptions,
the only person I'm competing against is myself, trying to meet whatever
arbitrary goal I'm pursuing this weekend.   I have a very modest station --
no amp, just a couple of wires -- so I feel no frustration that folks with
better stations and more experience than I can completely trounce me in the
results.

I really enjoy using the cluster during CW contests.  With a
click-and-pounce strategy, decent propagation, and well-set filters, I can
frequently get nice, adrenalin-inducing rates, without having to fight to
hold a run frequency.  It's fun to me.  It's also definitely not the same
as tuning around to stumble across a surprise multiplier, as one might do
when S&P-ing unassisted.

So, put my name down among those who would like to see SO(A) recognized as
a discrete entry class (as opposed to being treated as multi-op), at least
in those contests that aren't specifically aiming for "a boy and his radio"
ambiance.

But I wouldn't go so far as to merge SO and SO(A).

Even if at the highest levels, assistance might not make that big a
difference, for those of us in the middle, who might derive some pleasure
at seeing just where in the middle we might lie, there is enough difference
in operating assisted vs unassisted to merit the distinction.

-- 
*Michael D. Adams* (N1EN)
 Poquonock, Connecticut | mda at n1en.org


On Sat, Jan 26, 2013 at 8:08 AM, Martin , LU5DX <lu5dx at lucg.com.ar> wrote:

> To give you one more example about the usage of packet. During CQ WW CW
> 2012
>
> SOAB HP 763 entries.
> SOAB(A) HP 1084 entries.
>
> SOAB LP  1658 entries.
> SOAB(A) LP 728 entries.
>
> Clearly LP guys don't use cluster as much as HP entrants, and that's a
> logic thing. When you are LP you have to privilege rate over chasing mults
> a lot more than when you are HP. It is a lot better to find by yourself
> what you can hear instead of jumping in highly crowded pileups produced by
> DX spots. But that doesn't mean the distinction between these two
> categories is something beneficial overall for contesting, since it can be
> a factor that biases the results of top entrants.
>