As many of you know, I have been busy DXing for the past week and a half
so I have had not had a chance to comment on these interesting topics.
Personally, I think that a Skimmer populating a bandmap, while different
than DX spotting assistance because it does occur at your own station,
is enough of a game changer that it should be only allowed in "assisted
class". Not because the skimmer necessarily provides assistance from
another person/machine but because it provides decoded CW assistance
beyond the intent of SO Unassisted class.
To me, the easiest way to do that is simply require that CW be mentally
copied to be in the unassisted class. Yes, I know that some people are
using CW decoders now. Great, let them continue, just require them to
enter as assisted. I seriously doubt that a casual contester using CW
decoding is going to be seriously bent out of shape being required to
enter assisted. In fact, to be honest, many are probably surprised that
they don't have to enter assisted already. Its like using a wheelchair
and being surprised that you aren't considered handicapped.
That simple definition change, "no use of any CW decoding devices of any
kind", in addition to the current extra assistance prohibition, totally
kills the Skimmer dialog for unassisted.
I am not an advocate of "squashing technology". I simply think it
should be grouped with like minded individuals. Skimmer is the ultimate
"point and shoot" for those who like that kind of contesting. The
assisted class already groups those individuals together and skimmer is
one more tool.
Those of us in unassisted enjoy copying CW and "melding ourselves" with
our radios. There is a reason why I don't do RTTY and I believe there
is a reason why RTTY is not nearly as popular as CW (it just isn't
guys.look at the past 10 years log entries and callsign databases). Its
too disconnecting from the "radio experience" of CW and SSB. Skimmer
starts to blend the difference between the two... Assisted is the right
place to do it and I hope the contest sponsoring organizations follow
that path in their decision on how to deal with it.
Ed N1UR
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