[CQ-Contest] WRTC Spotting

Fri Jun 30 12:27:52 EDT 2023

No, I don't think we are being punked.  I think Ed is being perfectly honest about his concerns.

I generally agree with Dave's observations below.  But I'd also say that a big impact on the contest in any direction (bigger or smaller scores or whatever biases) could be philosophically seen as inappropriate.  I don't necessarily agree or disagree, and reasonable people will judge the impact differently.  But it is a worthy concept to consider in WRTC planning, and surely those in IARU HF outside of WRTC should have some visibility of possible impacts in future.  That is all I am saying.

Similarly, for the concept of bias introduced by the possibility of spotting failure limited to only certain stations, only time will tell us if that is a likely event.  But it is a legitimate concern to at least consider.  Saying it is tough luck if it happens doesn't seem like a reaonable response.  Sure, sites will differ and there is luck involved, but serious efforts are made to minimize this as part of parity; we all recognize that as important.  So, it seems appropriate that other relevant variables get similar scrutiny.  Perhaps after experience, we will decide that the spotting systems are sufficiently robust that this has been accomplised.  Until then, perhaps it is an issue.  We won't really know until it is tried, but I don't think it can be argued that it isn't worth of discussion.

Yes, this is all too late for action this cycle, and yes, the Italians have been beat up far too much about all of this. (Including by me, mea culpa!)  But the conversation is legitimate.

73,
Drew K3PA
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Message: 7
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2023 19:06:18 -0400
From: K3ZJ David Siddall <davek3zj at gmail.com>
To: "cq-contest at contesting.com" <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] WRTC Spotting
Message-ID:
        <CABMNUBCZdMR+VaY6-OT0OuPMXFwEHg2zfGyw_zrz+kBQBd6rvQ at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

Seriously, don't you are being punked?

Every IARU participant this year will have a much better chance to win in
almost any category because a lot of the very top competitors will be in
the WRTC from Italy instead of the IARU contest from USA (or wherever).

And almost certainly there will be a substantial jump in activity, so this
is the best year to try to set a new record BECAUSE it?s a WRTC year.  The
last time WRTC ran, back in 2018, the number of submitted logs shot up by
23 percent.

So with many top competitors absent, and a big jump in competitors
expected, new faces are to be expected among the top scorers and new
records will be reachable if propagation is favorable.

Spotting?  There is NO self-spotting by the WRTC stations.  They will be
spotted or not by third parties with no control or influence from the
competitors themselves.  In fact, the competitors have no say in any of the
spotting decisions.  And during the event itself the competitors don?t even
have a cell phone, let alone an Internet connection capable of sending or
receiving spots or any other similar information.

But, those spots will materially aid every IARU competitor trying to win
their category or set a new record.

So yeah, this has to be an effort to punk you guys, don?t you think?

73, Dave K3ZJ

On Thu, Jun 29, 2023 at 1:34?PM Drew Vonada-Smith <drew at whisperingwoods.org>
wrote:

> Rich and Group,
>
> I think Ed's point is pretty straightforward.  He acknowledges that the
> two groups aren't competing against each other, that is not his point.  His
> point is that such spotting will have an effect on SSB traffic for those
> that cannot do it in the primary contest, and that it seems improper that
> an overlay should affect the primary contest IN ANY WAY.  I had not
> considered this previously, but it is valid.
>
> I personally think the effect of spotting on others will be rather small.
> But I cannot deny that there will be such an effect, and in principle, I
> would have to agree that it's a bad precedent.  It is easy to imagine
> others types of future changes in an overlay that would have larger impacts.
>
> That said, I think it is probably too late to change that spotting rule at
> this point, even if the parties did agree - and I suspect they do not.  And
> that fact is a very good argument for WRTC having better communications
> with the contester committee as a whole in future, and not just the
> subscribed group.  WRTC has various impacts on IARU HF that are worthy of
> consideration.
>
> There are lots of potential lessons learned here.
>
> PS - Please do not ask people "not to whine".  One's view of "whining" is
> another's view of stating their opinion in an open forum.  I frequently
> hear the same critisicm, but sorry, I have the same right to express as
> anyone else does.  You do not have to agree.  I do not have to passively
> accept.
>
> 73,
> Drew K3PA
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> CQ-Contest mailing list
> CQ-Contest at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
>

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Message: 8
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2023 21:48:20 -0400
From: Tom Frenaye <frenaye at pcnet.com>
To: <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Subject: [CQ-Contest] K5GA SK
Message-ID: <A9ABFE91-6D11-4BAE-BEA5-80345851308E at pcnet.com>
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="UTF-8"

Forwarded by K1KI

-----------------

One of the contesting pioneers became a silent key last week and I don't see any mention of it here. I have been working K5GA Mr Bill since I started contesting in '86. I only met him face to face one time, but we had countless quick chats in the middle of various contests over the last 35 years.... Along with several phone calls hundreds of text messages and email exchanges. RIP Mr Bill..... And SJ......MOG

Paul K9PG

Paul at k9pg.com

_________

Well I have seen nothing about the passing of Billy, so I will say a few things..

Bill Bradford (K5GA) " Mr. Bill" passed June 18th, after a long fight he fought to the very end!

One of the true Radio-Sport pioneers, being a contester since I believe the age of 10 in the late 50's! Just a few of his accomplishments can be seen on his QRZ page.

He was a great friend and mentor, taking the time to help me when I got back into the hobby in the 90's.

He helped me decide on things to build my mini-contest station on an extreme budget. We had some great times doing multi-ops, Billy eating fritos and bean dip, joking, ringing the mult bell and sometimes we would do well against the big boys .. his favorite saying was "the little station that could" when we would score well against the Pros!

Amazing to me was how much he loved it, you could see how excited he was to find that VU2 LP on 40m, just like I'm sure he was at 10 working his first JA!

I know he really enjoyed his last multi-ops out with George at NR5M..

Billy will really be missed..my weekly phone chats about stocks, radio, life....

Rest well Mr. Bill, hope LP is open wherever you are!

Mike K5NZ

?

Tom Frenaye, P O Box J, West Suffield CT 06093. c: 860-597-4539  h: 860-668-5444

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Message: 9
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2023 07:43:01 +0100
From: Tim Makins <tim.ei8ic at gmail.com>
To: cq-contest at contesting.com
Subject: [CQ-Contest] World Clock for 4K and HD monitors
Message-ID: <63d7ec50-16cf-4893-1435-3c1bf4134a61 at gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed

A World Clock for 4K and HD monitors. 60 layers. 25 base-maps. Plot ADIF
and Cabrillo logs, Grid Squares, and live QSOs via UDP. Windows 10/11.

https://www.mapability.com/ei8ic/tmu/screenshots.php

https://www.mapability.com/ei8ic/tmu/features.php

Tim EI8IC

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