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Re: [CQ-Contest] Self spot in ARRL DX

To: Tim Shoppa <tshoppa@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Self spot in ARRL DX
From: Stan Stockton <wa5rtg@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 3 Feb 2024 21:17:39 -0500
List-post: <mailto:cq-contest@contesting.com>
The question was whether everyone in every category could self spot or why 
allow everyone to self spot.  

The answer is that it makes it more nearly fair for everyone versus people 
complaining after the contest that so and so had all his friends spot him while 
I didn’t get any spots from my friends.  If everyone has an equal opportunity 
to let it be known what frequency they are calling CQ on, it seems fair.  

I made a comparison that you are in effect self spotting just by calling CQ on 
CW because you will be spotted on RBN assuming you have an antenna connected.  
If some are not seeing the RBN spots, I don’t see it as a flaw in allowing self 
spotting but instead an even more desirable thing!  If someone isn’t looking at 
RBN spots, but looking at DX Summit in a contest, he will be calling those who 
have their friends spotting them and not be calling those who didn’t have 
friends spot them.  If everyone can self spot, he is as likely to call one as 
the other.

Self spotting on CW ensures that regardless of whether the assisted S&P 
operators are only looking at DX Summit type spots or whether they are only 
looking at RBN spots or a combination of the two, they will know where everyone 
who is serious is located.   

It is not surprising there is a big difference between the number of callers 
when you have a real spot versus just an RBN spot, especially in a non contest 
environment like people working some 1x1 callsign on a Tuesday night.  If I 
were to turn the radio on for a few minutes when there is not a contest going 
on I would never open N1MM and connect to a cluster.  Instead I would filter DX 
Summit for 20m CW, for example, and see what’s on.

Stan, K5GO

> On Feb 3, 2024, at 12:44 PM, Tim Shoppa <tshoppa@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Stan, only a fraction of cluster telnet nodes in the widely circulated
> public cluster node lists include RBN spots.
> 
> Veteran contesters know that RBN spots are where it's at for CW or RTTY,
> but a more casual ham may not know this. They may have tried a dozen
> different cluster nodes and not found one - or not known how to enable -
> the RBN spots.
> 
> Tim N3QE
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