[CQ-Contest] ARRL to allow self-spotting in contests

[Sterling Mann]

Let's take it a step further...

* epic sports intro music plays *

And we are live at the K3LR super station, here on ESPN FiveNine - Your
HOME for RadioSport, where everybody is Five and Nine. We're just minutes
away from kicking off 2032's Worldwide DX Slam, and we already have 9 -
countem, NINE - ops on frequency already warming up the bands. I think we
got a big game ahead, last year's rival is putting up a bigger fight - K9CT
just put up 3 new towers on their farm, but their ops are sitting pretty
from the comfort of their laz-e-boys and couches tied in over Starlink, so
it's the perfect storm, butting the Butts in Chairs with the Work from
Homers against each other. Tim, what are we gonna be seeing today?

Well Fred, this is a young crop of contesters, so you'll be they'll be up
all night working well into Japan and Australia on 160m with that new
OctaVert they've been playin with, and just checked last night, looks like
we got 37,000 VK and JA listed on the regs tonight so it'll be like
shooting fish in a barrel in the graveyard shift assuming they can keep
their rates up and their frequencies busy. That'll be really key, coming
into the sunspot minimums, as the high bands just aren't going to keep it
up despite HAARP-II cooking the ionosphere last week for the
Lets-Make-10m-work-again contest. Man you could feel the heat, and you can
feel it here too. We also expect big things out of the rookie, Maci
Maxwell. She has just been blowing up the scoreboards on nightly sprints
but now she's eating at the big kids table, so pressure's on but I think
she's got it in the bag - we'll really see her shine on the greyline. And
can't forget about that wild metamaterial iono-georesonant phased array at
4O3A causing a storm in the radiosport meta, that is going to be a thorn in
everyone's side. Definitely going to be a big thing to keep an eye on in
the top five, and certainly be a hard battle for first place unlimited, but
you will see it here on ESPN FiveNine. Back to you Fred.

Thanks Tim. For those playing at home, it's time to put on those FlexVR
headsets for a new immersive experience brought to you by DX Engineering -
bringing the DX to the METAVERSE - it's DXaVERSE. Watch real-time stats and
scores, hear stations in full 360 audio with the all new NeuralDSP audio
engine, and SEE the DX coming from the skies so you always know where to
spin the dial and spin your beam to always be on top.

***

I long for the day that RadioSportscaster is an actual job, but I think
we've got a long way to go :-P

-Sterling N0SSC

Hi Randy:
>
> Allowing self-spotting might not have had much of an impact.  Allowing chat rooms and other non-amateur radio platforms will have a huge impact.  Competitive assisted single operators and Multi-ops will have social media coordinators.  Unless a very carefully crafted rule is written, Single Operator Assisted operators can have additional people helping with social media.
>
> Live streaming offers the ability to confirm QSOs in real-time.  The video/audio feeds will quickly be augmented by machine-readable data for that confirmation - and real-time QSLing!  This effectively eliminates the rules against confirming QSOs during contests by non-amateur radio means.
>
> Many QSOs will now be arranged via social media or dedicated apps.  It will be interesting to see if stations still need to hold run frequencies in a few years when the scheduling apps can just access their current frequency in real-time and it becomes sort of like a sprint.  I hope so - otherwise, the single operators won't even be able to work the serious assisted/multi-op stations.
>
> 73,
>
> Mark, KD4D
>
> >* On 02/16/2022 7:23 AM Randy Thompson <k5zd at outlook.com <http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest>> wrote:
> *> >  >* From the ARRL Contest Update today:
> *> >* "New Rules in effect for all ARRL HF Contests in June
> *>* Starting with the ARRL International Digital Contest, in all categories that allow assistance (Unlimited), the use of online and other non-amateur radio platforms including but not limited to social media, live video streaming, and internet chat rooms will be allowed. In all Unlimited and Multioperator categories, the prohibition of self-spotting, and asking another station to spot you, will also be removed."
> *> >* Wow.  It was one thing for the VHF contests to allow use of chat rooms and telephone calls, now this is extended to all HF contests. It should be interesting to see what unintended consequences result from allowing multi-ops and assisted competitors to spot themselves. You could spot yourself with every CQ if you wanted to. Or you can call people on the phone and ask them to get on the air. Or send out email reminders to work you during the contest.
> *> >* It is likely to have the most impact on SSB to produce spotting equal to what the RBN does for CW and RTTY.
> *> >* For an organization that has always been so timid and conservative on rule changes, the ARRL seems to have sprung this one without much consultation with the contest community.  I assume it is in reaction to the W2RE incident several years ago in ARRL DX where he used live streaming on Facebook during the contest.
> *> > >* Randy K5ZD
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