[CQ-Contest] WRTC2018 Qualifying

[Steve London]

On 12/02/2014 08:14 AM, Randy Thompson K5ZD wrote:

> With the exception of ARRL, CQ and the Scandinavian Activity Contest, the rest of the world’s contest organizers have moved on and allow single operators to use the Cluster if they want.  It doesn’t make contesting any less fun for the participants.

No, Randy. Misleading statement.

ARRL and CQ allow single ops to use the cluster, but they just have to 
submit their score into the category appropriate to their operating style.

For better or worse, the WRTC-2018 organizers are treating assisted and 
unassisted the same for qualifying purposes. I think we can all agree 
that, with a minimal amount of practice, a WRTC-calibre contester will 
score more points using the cluster, than had they not used the cluster. 
Therefore, this decision will result in greatly increased interest in 
the assisted category in 2015 and 2016 by those trying to qualify for a 
team leader slot. Then, in 2017, Randy will say "see, all the top 
contesters are now in the assisted category, so we are combining the 
assisted and unassisted into a single category for CQWW".

Sigh.

73,
Steve, N2IC