[CQ-Contest] WRTC Spotting

[kq2m at kq2m.com]

I don't operate in contests so that other people can watch me.  It's 
fine if they want to watch or listen to me, but it doesn't motivate me.  
I operate because I enjoy it and because it's fun.

I do watch the Indy 500 and other events and don't pay attention to the 
leader board.  I either watch an activity because it is interesting to 
me or I turn the channel. And yes, I have watched MANY baseball and 
soccer games in person and on TV without asking the score or knowing 
what the score was.  The same with Ice Hockey, Gymnastics and many other 
sports.  But I prefer to actively participate rather than watch and when 
I was younger and healthier, that's what I did.

Knowing the specifics of who is working what or when may not matter to 
you, but to a serious competitor  it does.  I certainly know how to put 
that information to use and so do a lot of excellent ops that I know.  
Just because it doesn't matter to you doesn't make it any less relevant 
or important to others who know how to use that real-time info for their 
own competitive benefit.  In fact, the best ops ARE THE BEST PRECISELY 
because they know how to take minor information and/or a small advantage 
and leverage it into a large difference in score.

In W1, there are unusual short duration openings that can be pivotal in 
a contest for a few handfuls of mults and 100 or more extra qsos very 
quickly.  Sometimes those unexpected openings last longer.  Whether you 
fully capture those or not can easily mean several places in the 
standings against highly motivated top quality ops.  The game is about 
finding and maximizing your opportunities better than everyone else.  
Any information is potentially valuable in the right hands and the best 
ops take advantage of that better than anyone else.

To paraphrase what Dick Norton, N6AA, once said: "If you believe that 
watching the scoreboard doesn't help you or others, then you have 
arrived at the level of operating skill and knowledge where you think 
that watching the scoreboard doesn't help you or others."

We can agree to disagree on "everyone should be on the scoreboard so 
that people can watch".  Rather than watching the scoreboard, I think 
people actually getting on to operate and improving their skills during 
the contest is of far greater benefit to all concerned and I would 
encourage everyone to spend more time operating and less time scoreboard 
watching.  :-)

I am eager to see the result of the WRTC 2022 committee decisions and 
what impact committee SSB spotting has on the IARUHF contest and future 
contests.


Bob, KQ2M


On 2023-07-01 10:52, Mike Fatchett W0MU wrote:
> Everyone should be on be on the scoreboard so that people can watch.  
> It is a competition.  Would you watch the Indy 500 or other events if 
> they did not have a scoreboard or leader board? Would you watch a 
> baseball game with without scoring, balls and strikes etc?  Not me.
> 
> Does knowing this information really help me or others?  I doubt it.  
> At this stage of the game there are very very few unknown secret 
> openings or rate periods.  It is nice to see that more and more are 
> adopting the use of scoreboards.
> 
> Back to the spotting conversation.
> 
> W0MU
> 
> On 7/1/2023 9:29 AM, kq2m at kq2m.com wrote:
>> 
>> Scoreboards are informative and fun to watch, and this usefulness 
>> brings about my main objection to their use being allowed by the 
>> NON-Assisted ops; that watching a scoreboard provides valuable 
>> information about band openings, rate and what is likely being worked 
>> on the band(s), by whom and when.  In some ways scoreboard info can be 
>> even more useful than actually viewing DX cluster spots which only 
>> tell you what is being spotted and by whom, not who/what is actually 
>> being worked in real-time.  I believe that use of the Scoreboard 
>> constitutes Assisted operating since this real-time information is 
>> provided by others DURING the contest.
>> 
>> For these reasons I personally do not look at scoreboards when I am 
>> operating NON-Assisted, regardless of whether or not the SOABHP 
>> category allows it.  I believe that the contest committees seriously 
>> erred many years ago when they gave their blessing to scoreboard use 
>> by the */NON-Assisted/ *ops along with several other forms of 
>> real-time technology including skimmer.
>> Why Mike and others feel the need to "get everyone to use scoreboards" 
>> is baffling to me.  Why not get others to develop and improve their 
>> OPERATING SKILLS instead?
>> And, NO, there are many among us who DON'T "accept automatic spotting 
>> on every mode"; rather, we have learned to live with it because we 
>> have no control over it and have not been left with a viable 
>> alternative except not to operate.
>> Regarding SSB spotting in WRTC, I can see both the pros and cons of 
>> doing this and the strong opinions already expressed.  Each WRTC 
>> committee is charged with making their own rules and each WRTC event 
>> has introduced new ideas and competition "tweaks" to experiment with 
>> them.  Some have been great and others not, but it is part of the 
>> ongoing evolution of WRTC (just as in the Olympics) and it will be 
>> interesting to see how this hybrid form of SSB spotting turns out.
>> Both WRTC and technology sure have changed a lot since the 
>> groundbreaking event took place in Seattle, WA, some 33 years ago.  It 
>> is still one of the highlights of my life!
>> I wish the 2022 WRTC Committee and all judges, support people, 
>> participants and competitors, a most awesome and wonderful event!
>> CU in IARUHF!
>> 73
>> Bob, KQ2M
>> In 2023-06-30 18:13, Mike Fatchett W0MU wrote:
>>> I don't see much of an issue. CW spots are automatic with RBN and 
>>> skimmer.  Why not SSB spots?  IARU could change their rules. Same for 
>>> any other contest.    Maybe this is how we get everyone to use 
>>> scoreboards.  If you use the scoreboards you get spotted on SSB.
>>> 
>>> We accept automatic spotting on every mode but SSB simple because we 
>>> don't have a good way to do it.  Maybe this changes that......
>>> 
>>> W0MU
> _______________________________________________
> CQ-Contest mailing list
> CQ-Contest at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest