[CQ-Contest] Packet killed single Op

[Art Boyars]

I've complained here repeatedly (ad nauseam, you might say) about how
"assisted" has changed single op.  This year in SS, both CW and SSB, I
experienced it clearly.  Several times I would find a nice juicy multiplier
early in his operation, and I'd jump into the pile with my little signal.
If I got beaten more than twice, it was all over. The "spot" would go out,
all the HP point-and-clickers would jump in, and the pileup would become
unmanageable. (A couple of times the rare mult CQer did hang in long enough
for me to come back 20 or 30 minutes later and make a QSO.)

The same effect happens with "new" non-mult QSOs, but I guess I don't
notice so much when I get packet-ed out of my umpteenth OH or SCV as when I
miss the NL or SB or EWA that I found giving out number 4.

Now, maybe you find "assisted" more fun than classic single op. That's OK,
and having that category reported in the Results is OK, too.  But PLEASE
don't think that the two categories should be merged.  I do not know what
special skills are needed for "assisted", but they sure are nothing like
the skills I developed for single op, especially Little Pistol.  (Having
the loudest signal in the pileup may be a worthy achievement, but I would
not call it an operating skill.)

73, Art K3KU