[CQ-Contest] When do we spot? Should it be required?

[Edward Sawyer]

Thinking like an old fart, I would agree with you.  But the fact is, the current crowd is pointing and clicking for rate - not just mults.

If you look at the spots, its hardly juicy stuff.  It's everything heard.  But its not being done in equal proportion.  I honestly don't know what prompts people to spot.  I mean why spot me, K3LR, K6ND, K1LZ, or W3LPL for any reason in CQWW honestly.  But yet there are probably 100 spots for many of them.  

And if you read the 3830 posts, its quite clear that many people just work down the band map instead of tuning.

On CW, that is now the equivalent of a very efficient global receiver, thanks to RBN.  But on SSB, it's a variety of spot or no-spot decisions that currently don't make a heck of a lot of sense.

Ed  N1UR

-----Original Message-----
From: ve4xt at mymts.net [mailto:ve4xt at mymts.net] 
Sent: Monday, October 26, 2015 7:24 PM
To: Edward Sawyer
Cc: cq-contest at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] When do we spot? Should it be required?

Interesting question, Ed. 

I wonder: aren't the odds of being spotted directly related to the odds the other station thinks you're at least a little bit rare?

In SS, VT is worth a few dB on the odds-of-being-spotted spectrum, but how much in WW? I don't mean to say you're just another N1, but you're just another N1. If I were in Europe, I'd probably want to filter out a bunch of been-there-worked-that spots anyway, wouldn't you?

Where ever I am, I'd want, when running assisted, spots to show me stuff I need, not stuff I can work just by calling CQ. So, flipping that around, wouldn't I be more inclined to spot a Zone 1 or Zone 40 station than another Zone 3 or Zone 4?

Do you want your band map full of G3s, F2s, OHs, DLs and VEs, or less crowded but with meaty stuff such as TFs, VU2s or HLs?

The answer to that question is probably the key. 

73, kelly, ve4xt,




Sent from my iPhone

> On Oct 26, 2015, at 14:22, Edward Sawyer <EdwardS at sbelectronics.com> wrote:
> 
> Taking a look at my spots this morning.  It is very surprisng when you 
> are spotted and when you are not spotted according to DX Summit.  Are 
> there other locations where spots exist on SSB that is not shown here?  
> I had a number of runs during the contest and was never spotted 
> according to DX Summit.  A nice JA run on 15M and very loud and fast 
> 20M run to EU on Sunday afternoon, neither of these ever appear 
> despite producing probably 400+ Qs in the log over a few hours.
> 
> With CW, the RBN system is an effiient harvester of signals that 
> basically instantly populates the band map with spots.
> There is no such system on SSB.
> 
> The major contests call asking to be spotted a violation. Every 
> contest, I either hear or am asked a few times regardless.  I am very 
> fine with this being considered unsportsmanlike.  However, with the 
> increasing number of contesters having a contest experience that is 
> nothing more than clicking on spots, its becoming equally unfair for 
> stations to be spotted in very disproportionate frequencies.
> 
> I put this question to the contest sponsors and the assisted and 
> multi-op contest community: What is your responsibilty to make spots 
> of stations?  Are you just a harvester?  Or do you contribute to the 
> process?  It would seem to be in everyone's interest that doesn't 
> "spin the dial" much, or at all, anymore to make sure that the 
> interaction is bi-lateral.
> 
> Should a minimum spotting requirement be added?  We have a minimum ID 
> requirement in CQ major contests?  How about a minimum spotting 
> submission requirement for those using the system?
> 
> I personally like the unassisted experience.  But being a "ghost"
> in the bandmap world doesn't help anyone in contesting anymore.
> 
> 73
> 
> Ed N1UR
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