[CQ-Contest] Contesting without spotting

[Steve London]

As someone who operates unassisted almost 100% of the time from home, it 
is unusual that I get clobbered by a "packet pileup" in the manner that 
Tom describes. Almost always, by the time I find someone good on the S&P 
radio, the assisted folks have already worked him/her. If I stumble 
across a pileup, and K3LR/W3LPL/K9CT/etc. is in the pileup, that one 
goes into the bandmap, and I return 10 minutes later. This is all part 
of my strategy, as someone who neither lives on the east coast, nor has 
more than a single medium-size monobander on any band.

73,
Steve, N2IC

On 12/12/2014 10:00 AM, Tom Osborne wrote:
> Hi Mark
>
> It used to be that way with individual spotters, but with RBN, as soon
> as that rare one calls CQ, RBN picks it up and spots it.  Then you, as
> unassisted, are competing with the assisted op's. You are both in the
> same pileup, whether assisted or not.
>
> I agree - it used to be very exciting to be tuning the band and hear a
> '5923, but now you hear a  '5923'. then ROOOOAAAARRRRR calling them.
>
> Can you imagine what it must sound like on the DX end :-)  73
> Tom W7WHY
>
>
>
>
> On 12/12/2014 7:48 AM, Mark Simms wrote:
>>
>> Harpole's comments resonated with me because one of the things that still
>> thrills me is "discovering" a rare station calling CQ Test (often high up
>> in the band on CW) that hasn't (yet) attracted a pile up. It is the
>> complete serendipity that makes for the kind of reinforcement to keep
>> tuning around. It seems that spotting networks spoil a lot of the fun
>> on 2
>> levels - they take away the "surprise" element and they create pileups
>> that
>> make it hard for  "little pistols" to crack in a contest situation.
>>
>> I think "non-spotters" should get a differential multiplier if we
>> stick to
>> that during a contest.
>>
>> Mark, W9MS
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