[CQ-Contest] Spotting - not

[Gerry Hull]

Agree on all, Ron, 100%

We, as the "OTs", must teach new contesters SKILZ (as they call them).

As I see it, RBN is "easy", so why not use it?  This is what is happening
to contesting.

I was very frustrated, and have been in the past, operating from rare
VY1AAA.  Our team lit up the USA Skimmers like wild fire -- Lots of KBs, 73
and 599s sent
from US stations we could not work in the contest.  Yet, NONE of them
spotted us.  Remember, spotting is for the benefit of all.  Certainly, you
are not  hurting yourself if you spot VY1AAA, since we are not competing in
the same category.

As a believer in RBN, I still tuned the band a lot this weekend, and worked
many 229 Euro mults which I ONLY found by actually tuning the dial.

All methods are important.

73, Gerry W1VE

On Mon, Feb 20, 2017 at 10:11 PM, Ron Notarius W3WN <wn3vaw at verizon.net>
wrote:

> My guys & I found quite a few stations that the N1MM bandpass map wasn't
> showing and that were not popping up on VE7CC.  Especially on Sunday
> afternoon.
>
> RBN may be here to stay, and for those operating Assisted/Unlimited or
> Multi-Op stations, it is certainly has a benefit.
>
> But with all due respect, no one should rely too heavily on the technology.
> If you do, you risk missing out on stations (and mults) that aren't, for
> any
> of a number of reasons, been detected (or at least, yet)
>
> 73, ron w3wn
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: CQ-Contest [mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of
> Matt Murphy
> Sent: Monday, February 20, 2017 9:41 PM
> To: CQ-Contest; Edward Sawyer; w1ve at yccc.org
> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Spotting - not
>
> 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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> > >
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