[CQ-Contest] Merging Social Media and Contesting

Wed Mar 11 15:47:26 EDT 2020

 Some time in the next 35 years or so, we hams will need to find a way to
stream contests without breaking any rules, and minimizing ruffled jimmies.
Believe it or not, it's going to happen. Contest livestreams and other
forms of integration with the modern world are the way of the future. I
forsee that ham radio livestreaming will help popularize amateur radio as
much as Twitch has promulgated the video game streaming industry. After
all, radiosport is probably the first eSport.

One thing I've proposed is a contest live show, where several contesters
stream their video over unpublished streams to a single source where a few
commentators show the operation of various stations, show highlights and
key moments, and discuss things like strategy, propagation, scores, etc.
basically identical to today's eSports streams. It might be just as
interesting as golf but millions of people watch golf, so...why not ham
radio? Having a centralized show that showcase a number of stations in a
rotation with commentary, that might also be on a delay, removes several
barriers like soliciting contacts, self-spotting, etc. and it might
actually be somewhat interesting to the general public.

I'm experimenting with doing just that, but the number of competitive
contesters who are also willing to stream (and have an adequate streaming
setup) is pretty low, so this might be a slow roll. If this is something
you're interested in, hit me up.

The argument that livestreaming your operation means you're soliciting QSOs
is novel. But what if you tweet, instagram story, snapchat, or tiktok your
operation (removing your frequency but showing you're on the air) and it
gets viewed by hundreds, thousands? Should it be banned or should the rules
change understanding that social media increases public awareness of
amateur radio, which is a very dire need for the hobby (not to mention it
generally increases activity on the contest assuming Ed's argument is true
BUT also true that those who made contact with a streamer also make
contacts with others)? Is it fair to disqualify streamers from competition?
Do they need their own class? How many QSOs were spurred by streams?
Shouldn't we analyze logs of streamers and those who made contact with a
streamer for notable increases in QSO count caused by streaming? There's
many questions to answer. However streamers tend to be those who are far
more ready to beg for forgiveness rather than ask for permission, strike a
new ham radio streamer movement, and cause contest directors to adapt to
new technology rather than the other way around.

Also, I've talked to W2RE specifically about whether or not he's performing
advertising for RHR while streaming, which is certainly a violation of Part
97. He says this is not so. I tend to agree since he's operating in good
spirit and doing a good thing for awareness of the hobby. However when he
says, on-stream, that he's not only streaming live (bringing in visitors to
the RHR facebook page to view the stream), but also saying he's using RHR
to connect to a station remotely, it raises my eyebrow a tiny bit.

-Sterling N0SSC

On Wed, Mar 11, 2020 at 1:55 PM PY2NY <py2ny.vitor at gmail.com> wrote:

> ARRL SSB Contest - I did a picture of my Yaesu dial
> and my CQ QRG behind a glass of wine, using
> Facebook.
>
> Wasn't thinking about "self_wine_spot" but N2IC
> (my brother from New Mexico) call me and at the
> same time, I change photo privacy from "public"
> to "only me". Will disclose it tonight.
>
> You can do that fantastic W2RE work in social
> media, but it's easy - don't show your dials.
>
> 73 DX from Jaboticabal, SP Brasil.
> .
> ..
> ...
> --------------------------------
> PY2NY / SP9NY / V26NY  - Vitor Luis Aidar dos Santos
> http://military-jeep-brasil.blogspot.com.br/
>
>
>
> Em qua., 11 de mar. de 2020 às 11:31, Edward Sawyer <
> EdwardS at sbelectronics.com> escreveu:
>
> > Some of you may not be aware of an interesting and different even that
> > happened last weekend.
> >
> > W2RE of well known RHR fame, decided to not only provide live streaming
> of
> > his contesting effort, but tied it into the activity he has been doing
> > since early January which is fully integrating the on air DX activity
> into
> > Facebook and youtube channel streaming.  Ray has done a wonderful job of
> > integrating social media with HF on air activity as part of promoting RHR
> > and DXing in general.  You cant argue that this benefits the hobby in
> > general.
> >
> > However, the rules of the contest state that "contacts cannot be
> solicited
> > by non-amateur means".  Examples are typically given but those examples
> are
> > not exhaustive.  The intent of the rule, I believe, is that you should
> have
> > people calling you by the normal discovery process that all of us use.
> Not
> > a special method no one else is using.
> >
> > Ray, to his credit, was not showing his transmit frequency ion the video.
> > And I personally believe there was no intention of using this additional
> > channel to gain an advantage.  At all.  However, if you look at the
> > activity generated on the facebook page - a couple of million hits since
> > early January (bravo Ray) - its hard for me to rationalize that there is
> > not a direct pick up of Qs based on this parallel activity.  Casuals,
> which
> > are a huge part of running up the Q totals in any major DX contest, may
> be
> > listening to the channel and say, I wonder how loud I am verses these
> other
> > guys Ray is working.  And look up on the cluster to find Ray's frequency
> > and give a call to hear themselves.  That is exactly "soliciting a
> contact
> > by non-amateur means".  Not overtly - like give me a call if you are
> > watching - but by "advertising" and letting the rest happen on its own.
> >
> > I think it is a wonderful idea on its own.  But it does not compete
> fairly
> > with those just playing the game by the rules as intended.
> >
> > CQ WW used to have an unlimited class, maybe they still do.  Maybe we
> need
> > an unlimited class to promote this "multi channel" contesting.  But
> mixing
> > it up with normal contesting just doesn't feel right to me.
> >
> > What do others think?
> >
> > Ed  N1UR
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> >
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