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After weeks of contester chatter about the impact of the CW Skimmer, some hams around the world finally gave VE3NEA's controversial program a test during a major contest, as the CQ WPX CW became the first real Skimmer proving ground.
A radio-sport.net review of some of the Skimmer spots made available at dxwatch.com showed the software certainly does pick up a lot of signals, but still has some CW copy issues.
For example, a look at two hours of 40 meter Skimmer spots from PD5PT in the Netherlands showed several different calls for German Multi-Multi DR1A, with everything from DR1A to NR1A, TR1A and IR1A. (See box at right for more.)
"WPX may be a poor choice for using Skimmer," said Bill Tippett W4ZV, one of those who gave the software a contest tryout in what he called "serious contest conditions."
"The reason is that with so many prefixes and with all the local 1-pointer Q's available, it may make more sense to run continuously than chase mults," Tippett said.
Tippett focused his Skimmer on 160 meters, using a one thousand foot Beverage toward Europe for about a half hour.
"During this period Skimmer positively decoded (in bold) 4 calls," said Tippett. "Tuning the band over the same period, I copied those 4 plus 15 others (13 EU plus 3V8BB.)"
"My conclusion is that while Skimmer will be a very useful tool on bands where signals are a little stronger, it still cannot decode weak signals near the noise floor," said Tippett, who noted that the program also seemed to struggle a bit with QSB.
"Not ready for 160 yet but it will get better," Tippett told radio-sport.net.
The issue of busted callsigns was one reason that CW Skimmer beta tester Pete Smith N4ZR had urged hams not to set up a Skimmer and feed it into the worldwide spotting network for WPX CW.
"I'm concerned that the plethora of busted spots and repeat spots of routine callsigns will give Skimmer a bad reputation," Smith said.
Smith had his Skimmer running much of the weekend as well. Here is a sample segment of his Skimmer spots on 20 meters from Sunday morning as reviewed by radio-sport.net.
"Typically, on Saturday during WPX I was getting several hundred spots an hour," said Smith, who noted that Skimmer re-spots "any given station after 10 minutes, or if it changes frequency."
"I'm running a beta of version 1.2, which has vastly improved callsign verification," Smith added.
As for how Smith thought it performed in WPX, he gave it high marks.
"So far CW Skimmer's performance in a major contest environment looks very promising. Because of the way it works -- jumping very rapidly from one signal to the next across its bandwidth -- if any given signal is temporarily QRMed, or a range of frequencies is blocked by a strong signal, it simply shrugs and goes on skimming the band," N4ZR added.
Even strong opponents of Skimmer use in contests noted how well it seemed to work in a major contest environment.
"Skimmer is cool technology," Stan Stockton K5GO told radio-sport.net.
"My son (N5DX) used it this weekend operating NN5J. It needs improvement (SCP filtering, user interface improvement, etc.) but will be an effective tool," Stockton added.
"My opinion is that when it becomes an effective tool it will have a detrimental effect on CW Contesting," one reason why Stockton has been leading a campaign that would ban such programs from all single and multi-operator categories.
"I think its impact will vary depending on the contest," Smith N4ZR told radio-sport.net on Monday.
Of course, it will also depend on how contest organizers categorize the Skimmer in new rules due out in coming months.
Meanwhile, CW Skimmer developer Alex Shovkoplyas VE3NEA wasn't worried about that or how many Skimmers were operating in WPX.
"Quite a few hams have indicated in their emails that they were working on the skimming system," Shovkoplyas said in an email.
He acknowledged to radio-sport.net that it will take some time for hams to work out the technical details in their own shacks and for him to further improve the program as well.
"It takes months to get the right radio for skimming," added Shovkoplyas, who obviously knows a thing or two about how his own software should work.
"QS1R is in my humble opinion the best radio for skimming in a contest," Shovkoplyas added, "it will be supported in version 1.2 of the Skimmer."
QS1R is a software defined radio developed by Phil Covington N8VB, one of many SDR's that is being deployed by hams with the Skimmer.
You can read previous stories about the CW Skimmer:
Contesters Await Rules Decisions On Use of CW Skimmer Software - April 21, 2008
Uproar In Contest Ranks Swells On CW Skimmer; Contest Rulemaking Efforts Not Resolved - April 28, 2008
Log Check Experts Confident CW Skimmer Use Can Be Detected - May 5, 2008
Skimmer Controversy Dominates As Contesters Assemble at 2008 Dayton Hamvention - May 12, 2008
Skimmer Put On Skimmer in Dayton; Human Ear Wins Pileup Contest - May 19, 2008
Tell us what you think about the CW Skimmer! Should contest rules be changed? Should this be allowed for unassisted ops? Email us at radio-sport.net
Here is a sample of spots put out by the Skimmer at PD5PT in the Netherlands over two different hours on Sunday morning on 40 meters, focusing on DR1A.
When tied into a radio properly, the program can basically offer you a bandmap full of stations, without being connected to any packet cluster site, as it automatically decodes and identifies CW signals (see photo below.)
The CW Skimmer program and more can be found at VE3NEA's DX Atlas web site.
This is a screen shot of the wideband DX Skimmer mode. (Photo courtesy dxatlas.com)
Pete Smith N4ZR has spearheaded a "reverse beacon" network, with multiple listening locations using the Skimmer around the world.
To see the stations it picks up, go to dxwatch.com and click on the calls of the stations with Skimmers that are online.
"Ultimately, I hope to see a DX-Atlas style propagation map overlaid with actualy reported paths," Smith said. "I think that would be a great teacher about propagation.
"Watching a given band open at various locations up and down the East Coast has been a valuable learning too for me already," he added.
This reporter went on 40 meters earlier in April and made a simple "CQ DE NS3T" call. Sure enough, "NS3T" quickly popped up on the screen via a Skimmer in W9.
