[RTTY] False skimmer spots (was Re: Waterfall and CQ conundrum)

[Tim Shoppa]

W0YK writes:
> False spots are more of a problem for S&P stations who waste time checking
> out bogus spots, often dupes.

Ed, I place in top 5 USA box of many major RTTY contests, and probably do
more S&P than most top box stations. I don't feel skimmer spots are a waste
at all. The very recent (just past few years... to a large extent just in
the past year) proliferation of RTTY skimmers feeding reversebeacon has
been hugely important to my strategies. The exact mix of "true CQ'er" vs
"S&P station spotted as CQ'ing" seems to vary quite dynamically from
contest weekend to contest weekend.

Obviously I identify the running station before calling, but there are
other clues available too from skimmer spot patterns that help me identify
the best target for the next QSO. If a whole bunch of calls are all piled
on same place on bandmap, that's a clue that something about the running
station's macros/dead-time-pattern is going on and most of those spots will
be for the S&P guys.. If I see a call working its way up or down the
bandmap of skimmer spots, I know that he's S&P and again something about
his macro is triggering the misclassification. In several important cases
I've scored rare mults by seeing the mult moving through the bandmap and
placing some strategic CQ's right in his way.

Tim N3QE