[UK-CONTEST] Clusters again

[Don Field]

This is an old chestnut Roger, but I feel moved to respond because it
usually generates emotional rather than argued responses!

In a rate contest (SOAB in CQ WPX for example) I would argue that it really
becomes single-op distracted. You end up chasing mults, lose your run
frequency, and everything goes to pot, for the sake of a few mults you would
have worked anyway. You end up running less and chasing your tail for mults.

But, to take another extreme, I have done single-band 160 (dear to your
heart!) in CQWW CW at the bottom of the last cycle, one year Unassisted and
one year Assisted. My prime reason for the latter was that I was actually
more interested in "DXing" than "Contesting", i.e. I didn't want to miss any
possible new ones (not just contest new ones, I'm talking about all-time new
ones!). But what happened was that I actually did quite a lot better than
Unassisted. The main reason was that I could run more! This surprised me, as
I hadn't anticipated that, but it's logical. The previous year I had felt it
necessary to keep breaking off to search for possible mults (there aren't
that many on 160 and you really can't afford to miss any if you are going to
do well - the QSO/mult ratio is high). And I certainly can't mult-hunt while
running, even with the second rx in the FT-1000 (well, you can, but it's
beyond the power of my small brain). But, when Assisted, I could run, secure
in the knowledge that I would be alerted to any nice mults that popped up
(actually, not 100% true - I did look around occasionally, and actually
found a few that hadn't been spotted).

So I believe there isn't a right and wrong answer to your question. In the
WAE contest, which is one of the great bones of contention, Europeans
outnumber "DX" by many to one, and Cluster does, I suspect, make a
significant difference. In CQ WPX I doubt it helps at all and even in CQWW
CW, for all-band efforts, I have a feeling it may do more harm than good. In
other words, it depends on the extent to which "mults" are important in the
particular contest (QSO/mult ratio).

The above isn't intended to argue right or wrong for Cluster. I'm just
trying to address the question of whether it actually boosts one's score or
not.

Incidentally, I don't think it's realistic to "close down" the Cluster
network for contest weekends. There are too many DXers and casual ops who,
not unreasonably in my view, feel they have an interest in it - why should
it be closed down specifically for the "benefit" of the (relatively few)
"serious" contesters (by preventing an even smaller number of cheats from
taking advantage of it).

Don G3XTT

On 8/28/06, Roger Parsons <ve3zi at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> Am I alone in feeling that 'Super check partial' is
> just as much outside help (or if self-generated,
> outside-contest-time help) as the cluster?
>
> Am I also alone in feeling that neither of them
> actually give much assistance to a really serious
> operation?
>
> So do either of them really matter either way?
>
> 73 (and shields up)
>
> Roger
> VE3ZI
>
>
>
>
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