[CQ-Contest] Self spotting now allowed in SS

[Edward Sawyer]

Tim, I don't disagree with your confusion, which is why I asked the question.  There was a CLEAR announcement by the ARRL that after June 2022, self spotting, streaming, social media was all going to be allowed in the Unlimited class.  And the specific contest rules for SS 2022 did not appear to be updated.

It seems some people were self spotting and I don't blame them.

So which is it ARRL?  - allowed (then change the contest specific rules) or not allowed (then update the announcement from earlier this year).

Ed N1UR

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First, make sure you have the latest rules. ARRL didn't update the November SS rules (to the latest, version 1.06) on their website until late August.
Prior to that we just had a confusing tease about self-spotting from a Contest Update earlier in the year.

Link to current SS rules:
https://contests.arrl.org/ContestRules/SS-Rules.pdf

My reading of SS rule PROH.3 in version 1.06 of the rules, is that self-spotting is a form of soliciting contacts by a non-amateur radio means (in this case Telnet cluster) and thus prohibited:

"Examples of prohibited conduct [...]: PROH.3. Arranging, soliciting, or confirming any contacts during or after the contest by use of any non-amateur radio means."

One clarification in 1.06 does explicitly allow a corner case of spotting, that was never previously mentioned in past contest rules. In the definition section you will find, "Generating spotting information for use by other stations is not considered to be spotting assistance." So for example you can be hooked up to a cluster and sending spots, as long as you've set all the filters such that nothing ever comes in to you from the cluster.

Tim N3QE