[CQ-Contest] The Paper log one radio, the SO2R and the SDR generations

[Stan Stockton]

Jose said;

How do I do it in less that 30 minutes?
I beam one antenna to Africa, and I beam the other antenna off to the
direction where I have the greatest null (let's say it is 90º off
direction). Then I zoom my pandapter to 10 Khz span. In that zoom I have
about 30 traces (stations). By toggling between the Africa antenna for 10
seconds and the 90º off antenna for another 10 seconds, and then fezzing
the panadapter screen, it is very easy just looking at the width of the
trace (small width small signal, wider width bigger signal) to say where
from the signal is coming, in this case if it is from Africa or not.

Jose,

Everything has become crystal clear.

While you are beaming Africa with one antenna and switching back and forth with another one off the side, looking for nulls and peaks to find those five rare Africans you still need, i suppose it doesn't hurt to also listen where you "see" CR3L (winning the world from same island in M2) who would be readily identifiable on some bands - maybe all.  I would bet 60-80% of all the ones their multiplier stations go after on Sunday, you also need.

There are two scenarios regarding this:

1.  You may just ignore the big "trace" for CR3L multiplier stations all together or have some way to block their signals so you don't see it.  If so I applaud you for doing that. I would doubt this to be the case since you are obviously "in it to win it" and it is not against the rules. If you do not look at what they have found using the network of remote receivers located all over the world (RBN) and the internet to provide a list of new multipliers, you should!   Perfectly legal and we need to do everything possible that has not been ruled against in our quest to be número uno.

2.  If you do look at the big traces from CR3L multiplier stations, while i applaud your truly great abilities and ingenuity, jumping on a spot that CR3L just jumped on in the middle of Sunday afternoon does not require any skill - nada - and while not illegal it is not within my definition, and most likely not any reasonable person's definition, of the spirit of the single operator category. 

If #2 is correct, then i ask....Is that why we want to eliminate it?  So you can do what you want to do, have one competition pool,  and be within the spirit of the game?   

The assisted category would be perfect for you!  Enter it and leave a few thousand cave men with their SO2R or even paper logging (if they so choose)  to compete on their terms OR i guess you can keep this up, use as much technology as you can, push people into it who aren't quite ready to be an "SDR generation" operator and sooner than later ruin the game they have known and loved.

Maybe eventually you can get a majority vote from thousands of surveyed operators who don't have an idea of what the real issue is regarding this.  That way, if it is pretty much ruined for thousands who used to love contesting, you can blame it on that majority vote.  However, i think there will be a sizable pool of people who know exactly who all to look at.

Best of luck...Stan, K5GO