[Skimmertalk] Archive?

[Joe Subich, W4TV]

> Working a station in a CW Contest DOES require a specific 
> method of detection if required in the rules.  We will just 
> have to wait and see how those new rules read.

The rules as currently written do not require a specific method
of detection.  To change them after more than 10 years in which 
CW decoding has been used and now that a non-trivial number of 
participants use decoders would be a travesty. 

> Just as an experiment, go to some fishing contest refector 
> and say it is all about how many fish you catch and see if 
> you get about the same response there as you do here when you 
> propose that the rules should allow a drag net to be used in 
> a bass fishing competition.  Rod and reel...

The contests - e.g. a "fly fishing contest" specify the purpose 
in their name.  There is nothing in a CW contest that says CW by 
ear only.  CW is a modulation method - nothing more.  It can be 
demodulated by many methods from iron filings to software and 
all demodulation methods are equally valid ways to "work" a 
station.