Based on all the traffic on the reflector and the private email I've
been getting from many different folks, I have been convinced.
Yes, I am missing the big picture, and the only way any of us should
put any faith in the contest results is by having the logs checked as
fully as possible.
If you're NIL, you should lose the QSO without exception. It doesn't
matter if you have audio tape or QSLs or notarized affadavits from
the other station - the workload for the log checkers would be much
too heavy to investigate the bad Qs. If it was really a good QSO
you're getting dinged for, well tough.
I think it should be taken farther though...if we're in for penny we
should be in for a pound (isn't that the old saying?). I'm saying
don't do it halfway. If you have any unique callsigns in your log at
all, they should be removed unless the station with whom you are
claiming credit sends in a log to corroborate the QSO. After all,
that's what precipitated this whole discussion.
We have software developed by the log checkers that can pretty much
reconstruct a log for a station that does not send one in (for
contests with meaningful exchanges of information - particularly a
serial number)...with enough accuracy to prove whether or not a
claimed QSO with the non-entering station is valid.
Otherwise, I would suggest that if the other station does not send in
a log, the credit should not be allowed for the QSO, because it is
impossible to verify that such a QSO actually took place. I think
this should be implemented anyway for contests with no meaningful
exchange, such as CQWW.
These changes are easy to do within the log-checking framework we
have now. It's actually somewhat easier, in that there would be no
human intervention required to determine if Us should be converted to
Bs. The only thing to add would be a small routine to delete all
calls for which there was no log submitted. That should be pretty
easy.
To do less is to lessen the integrity of the results. Each and every
QSO must be verified in some way or it should not count. Anything
less is indefensible.
I have seen the light.
73 de Lee
--
Lee Hiers, AA4GA
Cornelia, Georgia
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