CQ WW CW 2008 Assisted - CW Skimmer Meets CQ World Wide For The Very First Time

By Jamie Dupree NS3T  radio-sport.net 
Posted November 18, 2008

We have read about it for months. It has been debated endlessly on the contest reflectors and in the ham radio contest community. Now the CW Skimmer gets its first workout in the 2008 CQ WW CW Contest.

"In the CW events over the last few months, I have had Skimmer spots show good stuff quicker than the cluster," said Charles Fulp K3WW, who had the top Assisted score in the US in the 2007 CW test.

"It will be interesting to see if I can implement it efficiently during a real high rate event," he added.

The rule developed by the CQ WW Contest Committee treats the CW Skimmer morse decoding program like the packet cluster, as it is okay for single ops in the Assisted category and multi-operator efforts.

"QSO alerting assistance of any kind (this includes but is not limited to, packet, local or remote Skimmer and/or Skimmer-like technology, Internet) places the entrant in the Single Operator Assisted category," is the new language in the CQ WW rules this year.

The software got a big workout in the ARRL November Sweepstakes in the US and Canada, but now we'll see if it will make a difference in CQ WW.

"I am a big supporter of this technology," said Rick Walker K4TD on the Skimmertalk reflector. "I am extremely excited about its potential."

"I say all that as a prelude to my statement that the competative edge we derived from skimmer in our 2008 SS CW multi-op effort at K4TD was essentially non-existant," Walker added.

One lingering question of course is from the Dark Side, as in will there be some contesters who cheat by using a local Skimmer (just as some use packet) for a regular SOAB Un-assisted entry.

"While it may be possible to detect someone who uses Skimmer like packet spots to work any new station, it will be difficult or impossible to detect someone who judiciously uses Skimmer to only identify needed multipliers," said Sylvan Katz VE5ZX.

In 2007, Katz joined with Jose Nunes CT1BOH to publish a study that raised questions about the undeclared use of packet spots by certain 2006 CQ WW CW entries.

Katz suggests one way to tighten post contest log checks is to require that logs always specify the frequencies for each QSO.

"It is difficult if not impossible to find packet and skimmer users unless the exact frequency instead of simply the band is recorded for each log entry," said Katz.

As for this year's Assisted battle, the 2007 winner seems to be moving on to another category, as Sergei Rebrov UT5UDX will be back in Zone 16 Moldova, but has indicated on the NG3K.com site that he will be in the SOAB HP category.

In 2007, stations from Zone 16 won both the SSB and CW Assisted titles, with Rebrov finishing first in CW and second in the world in SSB.