[PVRCNC] K3KO WPX + Skimmer try #1

[Brian Alsop]

My usual few hour effort. All S&P with the objective to maximize 
multipliers.  Enjoyed playing with a new gadget.

575 x 468 =772668

Yeah, the net score isn't that great.

Observations on the use of local SKIMMER
1) WPX isn't the ideal contest for it.  After "working out" many DX 
multipliers, one is faced with a band map polluted with 1 point W/VE's. 
Not what I wanted to see in my limited operating time.  Would be nice if 
there were some kind of filter to suppress the W's at will.
2) Accuracy of SKIMMER appears to be as good as normal spots -- until 
thunderstorm QRN showed up.  Then SKIMMER busted lots of calls on 40/80.
3) Knowing SKIMMER was there made me question all spot calls more. 
Perhaps that effect may mean fewer busted calls overall.
4) Although "packet pileups" are not such a big problem in WPX, guys 
spotted by SKIMMER generally had no pileup. Great! It will be 
interesting to see how this holds up in ARRL DX.
5) I was impressed by the number of very weak stations properly decoded 
through the din.  These weak stations were on the order of a few db 
above the noise.  Some of this may be due to the K3's RX.
6) Since SKIMMER decodes only +/-12 KHz (in my setup) from the RX 
frequency, tuning the band becomes a bunch of tune and stop steps. 
SKIMMER does resync but it takes tens of seconds.  It would have been 
more efficient to use the sub-rx to constantly tune while having SKIMMER 
on the main RX accumulate spots from the tuning jogs.

Like when packet was introduced, there was the tendency to get 
mesmerized with the tool.  One has to forget it is there and get on with 
the business of contesting. (It certainly was not as flaky as the old 
day packet RF connection.  Keeping connected in those days was a 
constant problem.)

Very interesting technology.  It would be interested to see what a real 
butt-in-chair contester could do with it.

73 de Brian/K3KO