[CQ-Contest] Robotic contest operating, why knot?

[Hank Greeb]

Thanks, Jamie;

Every time I mention a "ROBOT" or similar for CW contesting I get beat 
up by ops who say categorically say "CW Skimmers can do anywhere near as 
good as he human brain."

Yet, I just privately received a presentation by a group from
Finland who have been experimenting with "Robot" or "SYSOP" category of 
CW, RTTY, and probably other modes in Contest since sometime before 2015.

I certainly agree that CW readers/skimmers started out with very poor 
results, but the report from Finland says that skimmers beat many of the 
top contest ops in recognizing call letters among simulated pileups at 
several large ham gatherings.

I only mentioned FT-8 because several folks locally have reported that 
they've heard of the new version of FT-8 can be run with complete 
computer control.

I've been predicting that it should be possible in the "near future" to 
run a robot controlled station and do a fair to middlin' CW score.  
Maybe not in the top 10% yet, but probably in the top 50%.

I'm glad to hear that this experimentation is continuing.  Maybe in the 
near future such a setup will be "plug and play" for an experimenter who 
doesn't want to learn all the programming necessary to make a station 
work with a robot at the helm.  Then, maybe I'd even give it a try.

72/73 de n8xx Hg
QRP >99.44% of the time

On 12/17/2018 5:16 PM, Jamie WW3S wrote:

> I think there already was a "robot" entry fr a cw test several years 
> ago....
>

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