[CQ-Contest] IDing, not

[w2lc at twcny.rr.com]

I was going to tell a couple people that I did not agree with them but maybe I do, but not in the same way. I think that this non-IDing rule may indeed make things worse and not better.  Promoting not IDing, or IDing less often, cannot turn out well.  That is what the rule does, sets a standard for not IDing. And promotes not IDing by making it acceptable.

It is poor operating practice to not ID. Most agree with that. Not everyone is assisted, so IDing does serve a purpose. Is accepting a call sign as spotted a good practice? That is apparently what some are doing, never actually copying a call sign.

All of us know, when new on a band and doing S&P, you tune quickly from station to station and drop your call in.  You can do 100+ per hour early in a contest S&P.  But that requires the CQing stations to ID often enough.  If the IDing is only once every couple minutes, then your rate drops from that 100+ per hour pretty quick.  Making S&P ineffective unless you copy the calls off a spotting network. If everyone follows the new rule and you skip past all of the non IDers, that too makes S&P worthless. And then I suspect you drive away many of the casual contesters. Think about that, you tune across a band and no one is IDing, as  casual operator how does that keep you interested?  All you hear is 599 ... TU ... 599 ... TU ... 599 ... TU ... but no call ... pretty boring

So dump the rule that promotes not IDing. If everyone starts with the non-ID way of operating, S&P will be worthless, and the contest will follow.

73 Scott W2LC