[CQ-Contest] The impending demise of SSB spotting in contests - and should we care?

[Chris Plumblee]

The danger with "spot all s&p QSOs" is that many casual and not-so-casual
operators who don't use sound card DVK don't switch between Run and S&P
properly. Any number of times I've found a frequency, called CQ, worked
some number of people (anywhere from a handful to several dozen) only to
realize that I forgot to change from S&P to Run. If I'd had the switch set
to spot everyone, I'd have spotted all my callers on my frequency.

I agree with Stan that generating spots should be distinct from consuming
or using spots.

73,
Chris W4WF

On Thu, Nov 19, 2020 at 6:40 PM K4Sbz Stan <k4sbz.stan at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
>
>  I am one of the “casual “ contesters. I am an avid participater, but not
> a challenger for top score. In many contests, I operate non-assisted.
> Although I frequently “run”, the panadapter on my SDR radio makes S&P very
> easy. While doing S&P, I often work stations that don’t show up on the
> DXcluster. I would really like to spot these stations, but the wording of
> what constitutes assistance prevents me from doing a favor to those guys.
>
>
>
> I would like to see the definition reworded to include anyone who uses
> spots to make a contact, but not someone who merely sends a spot and get no
> benefit from doing so.    This would make me feel more like I am a part of
> the contest and not an outsider.
>
>
>
> Stan, K4SBZ
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >
> > On Nov 19, 2020 at 1:26 PM,  <N4ZR (mailto:n4zr at comcast.net)>  wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >  Did you know that over 40,000 different stations made at least one
> contact with the 8500 stations who submitted logs for the CQWW SSB contest
> in 2018? Without the non-entrant, casual ops, SSB contesting would be a lot
> less fun for us all. And why do the casual ops get on? I submit that for
> most of them, the chance to work new countries, zones, states and so on are
> what it's all about. And how do they know which stations to call, to
> achieve these goals? They connect to DX clusters. Okay, so what? Well, as
> someone recently pointed out, there has been a pretty steep decline in
> human spotting of both SSB and CW, at least partly because on CW, there's
> little need to spot anyone any more. The RBN takes care of that. But on SSB
> -- not so much. The problem is exacerbated because contest sponsors tend to
> view any cluster connection during a contest as evidence that the connected
> station *must* be assisted. This tends to deter people from spotting unless
> they themselves  are, in fact, in the assisted category. This, in turn,
> means that features like N1MM+'s "Spot all S&P QSOs" don't get the use they
> could. So, what to do? It would be helpful if contest sponsors would
> clarify their rules to specify that stations entering as unassisted can
> still send spots. -- 73, Pete N4ZR Check out the Reverse Beacon Network at<
> http://reversebeacon.net>, now spotting RTTY activity worldwide. For
> spots, please use your favorite "retail" DX cluster.
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>
>
>
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-- 
Chris Plumblee
407.494.5155