[CQ-Contest] Do not rely on spots for copying callsigns

[Kevan Nason]

KG2V wrote: has anyone gamed out the "points gained by going faster because
of relying on spots/rbn" vs "Cost of busts" Is it possible that by going
faster, you are getting more points than the busts cost?

Not only “possible”, but getting more points is undoubtedly the case for
those contesting competitively or we wouldn't use spots. Busts from bad
spots are definitely an annoyance, but not a big issue for operators who
have trained themselves to verify the call before logging. ‘Point, Click,
Work, Log’ is another way of saying “I’m in the contest to have fun by
working stations quickly. I don’t really care if I fill my log with
errors.”

Think about pre-RBN contesting. If an operator wasn’t sure they had the
correct call when someone answered their CQ, or when they tuned on a
station while S&P, some would take extra care to verify the call before
logging it and some wouldn't. Those that didn’t had higher claimed scores,
but higher error rates resulted in lower actual scores. Good contest ops
trying to win became adept at handling questionable calls. I see the same
thing happening now with spots. As Pete N4ZR mentioned in his post, once he
recognized spots could be bad he learned to scan the list of adjacent
calls. For repetitive bad spots he blacklists them. (I’m sure he recognizes
he may block a legitimate call while blacklisting, but blocking someone
reduces his chances of penalties). And of course, Pete is in a position to
influence how the RBN system handles busted spots so he has worked to
improve things from the RBN input side of things.

The point is… Operator skill determines how a particular individual handles
a bad call – er, I mean a bad spot. The results of gaming it out would be
mildly interesting, but of minimal value since many don't really care if
their spots are busted. Even people who handle bad spots well handle them
differently because of station problems, being tired, if they had a spat
with the kids/XYL, etcetera. I’ve found it best to do what contesters have
done for decades. Treat every contact as a new contact and verify the call.
Treat the station found by clicking on a spot as an unknown. That click did
nothing more than bring you to an unknown station just as if you'd tuned
onto them by turning your VFO.  As the string subject says… don’t trust
spotted call signs. Assume the spotted call is wrong and verify it before
logging.

Kevan N4XL