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

[Stephen Bloom]

Sterling, I think conceptually you are correct, but the idea of just pulling the scab off, let it bleed and expect that it will heel stronger in the end, was very dismissive of the majority of the current community.  As I said in another email, there is no future without the present, and to put not too fine a point on it, those of us with heavy time, financial, and emotional investments in the hobby, also have the ability to pull our support.  Anybody who is taking this seriously probably has a pretty big ego.  Big ego's and being told rather than asked are a bad mix.There was a way to do this.  Yes, it would have taken longer and no doubt talked to death, but building consensus matters.  As I said, conceptually,  the idea is valid, and in my own social media, I've made it clear for awhile, that this was the necessary direction to go, for long term growth.  I'm also reasonably technically astute as far as I.T (I make a living with it) and  an accommodate most things.  If I want to Stream, I can  as an example.Thing is, I don't.  I support it all.  I own a M/M contest station which is as competitive as possible in a tough environment.   My fun is getting a group of ops together, to have a blast, in person.  I don't even care much for remoting, though I'm fully supportive of it.  It makes contesting possible for so many people who couldn't otherwise.  For us, streaming would change our "vibe".  Enough to have me get out, probably not.  If in person M/M becomes devalued overall though, then yes I would.  I'm only one guy and the world doesn't begin or end with me, but the contesting world would lose the KL mult on a lot of bands.  There would be others as well, and until a fully integrated Internet gaming/RF community achieves critical mass, we'll either be a part of the process, or we'll take our toys and find some other way to piss off the SO's, the neighbors, and local governments. 73Steve KL7SB Chief FiduciaryNorth Pole Contest Group KL7RA 
-------- Original message --------From: Sterling Mann <kawfey at gmail.com> Date: 2/16/22  11:42 AM  (GMT-09:00) To: "CQ-Contest at contesting.com" <cq-contest at contesting.com> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] ARRL to allow self-spotting in contests I, for one, welcome our new insect...erm...contesting rules. This change isgood for the face of our hobby!This might be the rule change to open the floodgates of a new paradigm ofcontesting and a new generation of contesters. The ARRL is answering themail on getting ham radio into more peoples' eyeballs - that is throughcontent. The self-spotting rule is a barrier to that which makes streamershave to obscure frequencies and operate under an ethical gray area if theywant to be competitive and not have to submit as a check-log because,despite intent, more people may seek to work a streamer than anyone elseand that could be perceived as a solicitation of QSOs.This also opens the floodgates to a new type of QRM that we know very wellin the esports/video gaming world - stream sniping. Popular operators willcertainly draw trolls (but honestly, we already see that today, so what'sthe difference?). It'll also be interesting to see how self-spotting playsinto contesting strategy. Does a spot hold any weight on "this frequency isin use!" argument when your run freq gets trampled? How much differentwould a S&P's operator's score be if everyone self-spotted over the currentsystem?  Does search and pounce even make sense now that it's a little morepoint-and-shoot...click-and-transmit :) Or will the band window look anydifferent at allAnd remember, there is always a category that YOU can CHOOSE to compete in.But if you choose to compete unlimited, multiop, or otherwise assisted,then you might be in a new echelon. You might want to buy a webcam andlearn how to livestream and hold an audience (yes, people watch thisstuff!). You might want to self-spot (assuming you weren't already).I think this rule change levels the playing field amongst those who aretruly top-10 competitive, fixes the RBN gap, eliminates self-spotting as asource of cheating (which is already wildly rampant and basically invisiblewithout a lot of manual pattern matching), and most importantly, opens abig door towards modernizing the hobby.I don't think the ARRL/CAC/whomever conferred with the contesting community(as far as you know) because they already knew the answer wouldoverwhelmingly be NO, and the alternatives (like a livestreamer category,or ultra-Unlimited categories) are too little. I'm happy the ARRL is makingsuch a sea-change. I'm sure they will enjoy reading the comments on it (andI hope they stick to their guns on this) but at the end of the day, theyneed to bring more hams into the hobby, more contesters on the air, moreactivity on the bands, and more members into the ARRL, and by promotinghigher scores, greater competition, and weaving this into the attentioneconomy of the internet through content creation, that goes a LONG way toinvesting in the future at the expense of the status quo.--Sterling N0SSC_______________________________________________CQ-Contest mailing listCQ-Contest at contesting.comhttp://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest