[CQ-Contest] WRTC Spotting

[Randy Thompson]

Scoreboards provide one very real value to operators - the opportunity to know how their competition is doing for score.  Contesting used to be 'man isolated in basement' vs his own mental fortitude to persevere.  You had to be self motivated because you had no idea how others were doing. The scoreboards now give you a view of how the other racers are doing and can provide motivation to keep pushing whether you are ahead or behind.  They are even more valuable during part time efforts, where you sit down for awhile and can compete against the other scores around yours.

Scoreboards are not even close to the value of looking at the DX cluster in terms of knowing what bands are open, to where, and who is on.  If you have time to look at the detailed breakdowns in real-time from a scoreboard, you wouldn't know very much and probably aren't winning anyway.

As for the contest committee rule making...  yes.  The focus was all about the new Packet thing on VHF and the value of getting real-time spots.  The assisted rules were written around the concept of station finding consisting of a callsign and frequency.  As the Internet quickly took over, we suddenly found there were many other information sources that should have been included.  Watching the solar weather forecast (something I know you do as a SO) is an example.  If we were writing the rule today we would probably draw a box around the station and allow Internet and skimmer tools, or we would allow nothing.  Too late.

Things do keep changing.  Self-spotting is a whole new can of worms, but also looks like it will be with us going forward thanks to ARRL.

Randy K5ZD

-----Original Message-----
From: CQ-Contest <cq-contest-bounces+k5zd=outlook.com at contesting.com> On Behalf Of kq2m at kq2m.com
Sent: Saturday, July 1, 2023 11:30 AM
To: Mike Fatchett W0MU <w0mu at w0mu.com>
Cc: cq-contest at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] WRTC Spotting



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
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