[CQ-Contest] Assisted / Non Assisted

[Geoffrey Way]

Jeff wrote:
"1)  Make one unlimited single operator category..."
	--> "etc." <--
[snip]

"2) Keep a traditional single operator category."

Jeff,

These are strictly "devil's advocate" questions I'm posing:

"etc." is a pretty wide net. Should one be forced into unlimited if it 
includes any of the items mentioned in the next series of questions below?

You used the word "traditional", and that's problematic because there is no 
easy way to draw the line between traditional and "modern". Does 
traditional mean:

no automated dupe checking? (I remember using dupe sheets...)
no computer logging? (I remember paper logging...)
no automatic CW keying?
no voice keying?
no 2nd radio?
no radio with 2 vfo's? (isn't that kind of the same as above if it has 2 
antenna connections?)
no panadapter/bandscope?
no transceivers? (I remember TX/RX PAIRS.)

Put broadly, what exactly constitutes "traditional"? I believe that answer 
will depend entirely on who's responding to the question, and their answer 
will vary accordingly.

AND substantially.

I think the problem we face here is two-fold:

On the one hand the hobby is evolving, and developments in technology 
evolve out in front of and beyond the scope of the rules. The rules are 
forever stuck with following after (and never quite staying current with) 
the changes in this hobby that sometimes compel us to re-think the rules 
given the new features or possibilities available to us in those new 
technologies. We ALL must face and somehow try to cope with CHANGE.

On the other hand, a fraction of us are very open to and welcome the 
opportunity for change, and the rest are less so, with some being 
completely opposed to any change whatsoever.

This might be a set-up for discontent or disappointment for somebody no 
matter what we do. I think most of us can see that this is the crux of the 
matter, and who should be expected to suffer the loss? It's going to feel 
unfair to someone no matter how we move forward, or if we try to avoid change.

Lastly, I believe contest organizers like Randy and others want to do 
whatever adds the most to increased participation and the greatest level of 
enjoyment and honest sportsmanship among all the participants.

Technology can help support the recognition of many categories, but we also 
need to recognize there are limits of time, money, and manpower to 
administer a contest and maintain the technologies that support 
administering them. And yet at the same time, they render the complete and 
final results with greater and greater detail in an ever-decreasing amount 
of turnaround time, as well.

I am trying in my own way to help certain organizers do just that by 
offering my skillset if they wish to use it. "Ask not what a contest can do 
for you, but what you can do for a contest"... ;)

-- KA1IOR

  "Style is a simple way of saying complicated things."  --J. Cocteau


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            \  |    |   ---Tao.   A chinese character that
            -- |----|                means "Way, Path."
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             /_________                  Geoffrey Way

      websites: http://www.cape-vision.com/wayg/mrep
                http://www.cape-vision.com/wayg/ka1ior