[Skimmertalk] Now what - other contesting uses for Skimmer?

[David Gilbert]

K0HB wrote:
> Radiosport contesting is just a bunch of hobbyists amusing themselves with
> a radio for the weekend.  
I'm with you all the way there.  I usually participate (or compete) ... 
in anything ... as hard as I can, but I'm always amazed at how seriously 
hams take some of this stuff.  That's their right, though, and I'd bet 
most of them would prefer to have a good mechanism for enforcing the 
rules in the face of the clear abuse that keeps happening in radiosport.

> If it's degraded to the point that ARRL (or
> whoever) should spend $Ten-of-thousands on "a network of Skimmers to
> monitor bands during major contests and provide an iron-clad basis for
> resolving at least some allegations of cheating" then it's time to turn the
> whole damn thing over to the CBers.  
>
>   
Contest sponsors wouldn't need to spend "tens-of-thousands of dollars" 
to accomplish what Pete projected.  All it would take is a network of 
certified volunteers armed with $20 Softrocks and recording software to 
do the recording, and the processing could be done centrally 
post-contest with a single computer in a matter of days or weeks (with 
the right software).  That's no different than the current network of 
certified log checkers that collectively devote thousands of man-hours 
and take months to publish results.  If the sponsors and the contesting 
community were willing to simply trust the logs as submitted by the 
participants, we'd have results in a month instead of a year.  We don't, 
so obviously they don't.  Think of Pete's suggestion as an efficiency 
improvement of the review process.

73,
Dave   AB7E