[CQ-Contest] Spotting - not

[W0MU Mike Fatchett]

V3M here,

I noticed that I was able to work plenty of people on 10m and very few 
people bothered to spot me.  I think people think that the RBN picks up 
everything.  It does not!

I appreciate the people that did spot me and tonight I have seen a big 
improvement in spots.  Maybe the DXers are better about it? Maybe the 
Contesters do not want to alert their competition?  When we were spotted 
regularly the rates were sustainable at 150ish plus.  When no spots the 
rate was much less.  Are people tuning for mini pileups or there are 
lots of non competitors using spots.

I think we are nearly to the point that we might as well just program in 
self spotting every 5 minutes or 15 minutes.  It would save a bunch of 
electricity across the globe.

I honestly felt like I should have set up my own skimmer here to spot 
myself.  This would probably be looked on poorly.  I am not sure what 
the difference is anymore.  I have a skimmer at home W0MU-1 but I block 
my callsign from being spotted, should I?

V31MU/W0MU


On 2/20/2017 8:40 PM, Matt Murphy wrote:
> I think RBN was very bogged down on Saturday night. Spots were taking 30+
> minutes to appear.
>
> 73,
> Matt NQ6N
>
> On Mon, Feb 20, 2017 at 8:20 PM Gerry Hull <gerry at yccc.org> wrote:
>
>> KE1J was very active from K2LE in Vermont.
>>
>> In CW contesting, the need to spot has virtually been eliminated by the
>> RBN.
>>
>> In fact, if you are not looking at RBN spots, you are at a disadvantage.
>>
>> This has a detrimental effect on SSB, as it is not automated.
>>
>> However, for Assisted operating in the real world, RBN is here to stay.
>>
>> RBN hurt us at VY1AAA, as we were not manually spotted much, and prop,
>> especially in Europe, was not so
>> hot, so we were not picked up by RBN.
>>
>> The is game in CW contesting now.
>>
>> 73, Gerry W1VE
>> One of the VY1AAA Gang
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Feb 20, 2017 at 8:04 PM, Ed Sawyer <sawyered at earthlink.net> wrote:
>>
>>> Apparently, no one wants to spot any more.  They think that everyone is
>>> using skimmer so what's the point?  I decided to make some notes this
>> time
>>> in ARRL DX.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -          When did I start CQing on 80, 40, 20, 15?
>>>
>>> -          When did I get spotted?
>>>
>>> -          Did I notice any big burst of calls?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I compared those notes with a look at the DX Summit to see how the spots
>>> compared.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Keep in mind that I was likely the ONLY Vermont station CQing for many if
>>> not most of the time.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I found that in MANY cases - I was running for more than an hour, in some
>>> cases, close to 2 hours! Before being spotted.  Worked 100 - 300 stations
>>> before being spotted.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I also had a very direct correlation of a noticeable burst of activity
>> when
>>> spotted.  That means that there was a noticeable group of people not
>> using
>>> skimmer that were assisted.  Why don't those people spot?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> If you run assisted, what is your comment?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> 73
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Ed  N1UR
>>>
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