[CQ-Contest] WRTC Spotting

[Mike Smith VE9AA]

Great post Bob.

 

I read your previous and was NOT going to post, but your follow up post on
scoreboards was so good that there is no way I could do a better job of it
but felt compelled to add one tidbit.

.

Speaking as someone right up against W1, I can tell you that I am 100% sure
there are 10m(15m) and 160m openings to EU or maybe W. Africa I occasionally
get that even the guys in Boston or NJ sometimes won't get (or get for as
long maybe)..or heck, maybe they won't even notice !

 

*IF* I was using the scoreboards, someone might detect that a certain bands'
score is going up (or if I was single band.that bands score is jumping at an
alarming rate ).Anyone watching are my competition .  I don't wish to give
away any slight operationally/prop advantage I have by alerting them to some
obscure opening they might not catch on their own. winning/losing can come
down to 1 mult or even a couple QSO's  Giving away that info would be
foolhardy.  Even if bands aren't displayed, time of day alone and knowing
what's going on in the Ionosphere can having you sussing out a pretty good
guess why someones score is climbing...  So for those reasons I am against
using scoreboards myself.

 

Again, well put Bob! Kudos to Dick, N6AA ;-) too.

 

CU (all of a sudden!) in the next one.

 

Mike VE9AA "NB"

 

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

 

Mike, Coreen & Corey

Keswick Ridge, NB