Jim,
"Assisted don't win" is a truth with modification.
I am absolutely sure that any of the top-10 unassisted would get a
significantly higher score, if using assistance.
The reason why unassisted win is not because assisted creates a
disadvantage. The only reason is that true sportsmen in radio contesting
favor unassisted as the playing field to show who is best.
"Dead spots" does very seldom exist when using skimmers or RBN. The skilled
operator can increase his Search & Pounce rate considerably when using
these tools. Dead spots occur only if you are too slow to move to the
frequency. Immediate moving to a fresh RBN or skimmer spot will most likely
produce great results for you.
My conclusion fully contradicts yours.
There is no reason at all to merge Assisted with Non-Assisted.
Those who still want to show their skills of finding new stations and
multipliers, using the skills acquired by many years on the bands, should
have the right to compete in the traditional true art of contesting.
Those who find the pleasure of using tools, go ahead. I am not against, but
personally I decide to operate unassisted nine times of ten. The reason is
simple: My own understanding is that the pleasure of finding stations on my
own exceed the pleasure of having them served on a golden plate.
The challenge for the organizers is to be smart enough to develop necessary
tools to determine if a station claims unassisted but still uses
non-allowed tools. There is a long way to go and too many organizers are
passive about this important task.
73 de RA/SM6LRR, Mats
2011/12/1 JVarney <jvarn359@yahoo.com>
> I'm a relative newcomer, licensed in '09, small pistol. I admit I have
> little or no clue about a lot of contesting history or some of the
> traditions; I respect them, but I admit I don't know all of them. I can
> only comment on how I see things as they are today.
>
> In my view this whole Assisted vs. Unassisted debate is somewhat overblown
> and out of step with reality. I think the two classes should be merged for
> two reasons:
>
> -- Assisteds Don't Win. In all three classes of the just concluded CQ WW
> DX, the top scoring SOAB HP outscored the top SOAB HP(A). SOAB LP beat SOAB
> LP(A). SOAB QRP defeated SOAB QRP(A). Same result in CQ WPX. I haven't done
> a statistical analysis but looking at the scores it appears there's not a
> big difference between the two categories as a whole. The supposed
> advantage that Skimmer and spots provide to the operator is not visible in
> the results. This doesn't surprise me; I find a lot of the spots to be dead
> ends, either because I can't hear them or they have QSY'd. Half the time I
> end up turning the VFO anyway.
>
> Separate categories only make sense if the results show a measurable
> difference between them. The power categories HP, LP and QRP show this;
> there is a large and clear difference in scores between the three power
> levels. When the distinction between the categories show up in the results,
> it verifies that the categories are providing a useful and clear division.
>
> -- Clusters Assist Running Unassisteds. The popular QRO running stations,
> who are mostly Unassisted, get spotted early and often. This draws the
> Assisteds to running stations like moths to a light bulb. And so while
> running stations aren't using the cluster directly, they benefit greatly
> from it. You can't beat free worldwide advertising! Click here and work
> us...
>
> I see this as a major logical fallacy of the Assisted class: it assumes
> that the effect of using the cluster are confined to the operator using it.
> In reality the cluster impacts both sides of the QSO. The large swarming
> pileups around fresh spots prove that point.
>
> In conclusion I see no downsides to merging Assisted with Unassisted. If
> you want to embrace the latest technology, use the internet and
> computer-based tools. If you want to tune around and find your own
> contacts, then enjoy doing that. The evidence suggests that merging the two
> styles together in one class will cause no harm in their resulting scores
> and will not change the results. If the telnet/cluster/Skimmer experiment
> has demonstrated anything, it's that running stations will always win. And
> there's one other benefit of merging Assisted and Unassisted: it will end
> the long debates on CQ-Contest!
>
> 73 Jim K6OK
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