Very well said Kenneth.
For me it really comes down to this:
1. "Is my contest QSO being made with means and equipment
that is wholly contained within my station's/contest rule
defined location?"
2. "Is my ability to find stations to work is being
accomplished by using equipment that is wholly contained
within my station?"
By my estimation using APRS or other live chat/spotting
networks does not fit either 1 or 2 since large portion of
the "station discovery process" is being routed through
outside means. The standard practice of walking he bands does
not use "outside means" so I see no problems with. I know
that some try to equate APRS/spotting with the common band
walking practice, they are by no means the same thing at all.
As for real-time net based logging I have no problems with it
either. Mainly because there is little to no useful
information to gleaned from it. It really is pretty worthless
for finding others to work.
I also do not see any problems with modes like WSJT. In fact
I'm completely fine with people using whatever level
computing power and software that they can muster inside of
their station to make Qs. The only thing that matters as far
as I'm concerned is whether the claimed Q is being made
entirely with equipment inside of the defined station
perimeters on both ends of the Q.
Duane
N9DG
--- "Kenneth E. Harker" <kenharker@kenharker.com> wrote:
> Your subject line is quite prescient - too many turn to the
> internet during
> contests because it's easier than actually using the radio.
>
> On Thu, Jan 24, 2008 at 07:48:00AM -0500, Ron Klimas WZ1V
> wrote:
> > Thinking over this past contest, I'm a bit perplexed
> about a few observed
> > internet related practices:
> >
> > 1. Viewing Pingjockey while operating WSJT. I did. There
> were people making
> > skeds during the contest. Is that legit now?
>
> Except for the EME contest (and I think that was a
> deplorable rule change),
> using the internet to coordinate QSOs during the contest is
> cheating.
>
> > How about
> posting statements
> > like "Calling CQ now on .140" ? Is that really OK?
>
> That is "self-spotting", and again (except for the EME
> "contest") it is
> cheating.
>
> > 2. APRS Rover tracking. Findu.com and the like. Did
> everyone check this
> > out? I looked at it right before the contest and could
> see where all the
> > rovers were. Very nice! What I don't understand is why
> can't everyone view
> > this? I don't think this is spotting. It's geographic
> information, ie. is
> > the rover behind schedule getting to his first spot or is
> he already there?
> > It doesn't spot their operating frequency or anything
> like that. If it's
> > legit for anyone to simply view Pingjockey, why is it not
> ok for Single Ops
> > to view this? Is it just me or has the definition of
> "assisted" become
> > unclear?
>
> I truly do not understand why the VUAC and PSC thought that
> internet-routed
> APRS sorta-but-not-quite-really-or-maybe-it-really-is-CQing
> should be
> permissible in VHF contesting, but they have. According to
> the rules,
> though, only multi-ops can use APRS. Rovers can generate
> APRS self-spots,
> but they cannot use APRS data themselves during the
> contest. I guess
> some people thought having to actually find rovers on their
> own was
> too hard, so they should just let the internet do it for
> them.
>
> > BTW, got a real kick out of the guy saying he was a WI-FI
> rover, look for
> > my CQ's on 802.11b channel 3! Is that really in the
> amateur portion of the
> > band?
>
> Channels 1-6 are within the amateur band.
>
> > Did anyone work him? Am I missing something here or
> should we all be
> > looking at how to modify our wireless cards for use with
> a linear
> > amplifier? CQ Wifi DX! Let me through your firewall
> pleeze, I promise not
> > to give disease!
>
> As far as I know, 802.11 is not a popular mode for VHF
> contesting.
>
> --
> Kenneth E. Harker WM5R
> kenharker@kenharker.com
> http://www.kenharker.com/
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