[SCCC] re ARRL DX CW 15m SOHP W6YA

[Jim McCook]

Marko,

You're right, of course, that the spotting/skimmers are upon us, and 
there's no turning back.  I see no reason to _accept_ the concept, but 
like us all, we just have to work around it. I'll keep working around 
it, and keep shaking my head at the same time, wondering why people use 
this stupid concept for a contest. I did adapt, but hate it all the 
way.  Progress and technology is not always good.  I remember an 
instructor in school saying, "Will you choose the harder right, or the 
easier wrong?"  As far as I'm concerned, spotting in contests is 
definitely the easier wrong, and I'll never really accept it as good.

I compare it to developing a robot to use for playing golf.  All the 
golfer has to do is load the balls into the robot and pick them up in 
the cup.  In other words, it's for lazy people who don't want to work so 
hard.  What bullshit.  This contest was a very clear example, once 
again, what a hurdle it creates, especially for the DX ops.  I still 
find it incredible that serious contesters would want something like 
this to exist.  It has done nothing but create problems like we both 
know about. _It's 100% negative._  I even go so far as to say it's like 
drugs... some contesters apparently get excited about pushing buttons 
and not having to hunt, in spite of the bad problems.  The other 
negative effect is that it encourages some DX ops not to sign their 
calls as often because it just makes things worse.

I remember years ago there were commercial fishing ponds along some of 
the main roads.  A pond, maybe 300ft across, was jammed with stocked 
fish.  Just drive into the parking lot and go fishing.  They rent you a 
fishing rod, bait, hooks, and all you have to do is drop the line into 
the water, you're guaranteed to get some fish.  What a joke that was, 
too.  They no longer exist, most likely because it was a bad idea.  In 
some states, like Texas, ranches import exotic big game to plant on the 
land so the mighty hunters can show up on the weekend and shoot their 
African animals without going to Africa to _actually hunt_.

I have tried using the cluster (unlimited) years ago during a contest, 
just to experience it.  The whole time I felt like a whore.  It was a 
joke.  Like taking candy from a baby.  For the average hams, it is 
obviously eliminating any reason to develop the skill need to find 
stations on their own.

As far as 15 goes, I was worried when Friday night there were so few 
mults.  I heard someone being called by a loud XW4XR, but never found 
him, and he didn't answer my CQs.  I shut things off at 7pm and watched 
a movie.  The next morning it was a struggle to work weak and semi-weak 
Europeans, but finally after 9am I got a run going, which didn't last 
long.  I did find a lot of interesting mults, though.  When the run 
slowed I started tuning around with the SUB VFO to find new mults, such 
as JY9FC, 5H3EE, V51YJ, etc.

On Sunday morning conditions were much better.  I was running Europe 
much sooner, and it lasted almost 3 hours.  One particular run on a 
single frequency lasted almost 2 hours.  It was amazing. A couple of 4X, 
TK, GJ, all the Scandia areas, SV5, UA2, etc all came in a run.  Never 
heard the deep Asiatic Russians, like EX, UN, etc.  It was fun to find 
most of the good mults by hunting them down with the SUB or just tuning 
around when things were slow.

In spite of this, my score was down 30% compared to last year in the 
same contest.  Many less Qs and many less mults.  For me the most fun of 
all is always the hunting.  That's why I view the spotting as such a 
lousy idea.  I will always think of it as the dark side.

Jim