To me the answer is obvious. Quite apart from any possibility that the
request was not on the up-and-up, we do our children a great disservice when
we teach them to break rules or act unethically just to avoid
disappointment.
I don't mind giving them the information for their own records or for
QSLing, but certainly not for use in the contest submission. I would wait
until after the contest submission deadline is past, and then send them the
requested information after it is too late to change the submitted logs. If
I thought it was appropriate or necessary under the circumstances, I might
accompany this with a note explaining the reasons for my delay.
The kids may be disappointed, but if they are old enough to enter a
competition, they are old enough to know that competitions must be carried
out within the rules. Think of all the kids who play Little League baseball
or peewee hockey - they are considered old enough to abide by the rules and
accept the occasional incorrect or unfair decision by umpires or referees,
and indeed one of the main reasons we as parents encourage our children to
participate in competitive sports is so they will learn this.
I have noticed a somewhat similar dilemma posed by the use of eQSLs,
although without the added dimension of disappointment to children. The
easiest way to eQSL is to export your log to ADIF and just upload the whole
ADIF file. Quite a few people do this right after the contest, and this
offers opportunities for breaking the rules in a similar fashion to your
example. For example, I have received a set of eQSLs from someone soon after
a contest where he QSLed only two contacts although I logged him three
times, which provides me an opportunity to remove a bad QSO from my log. I
have also received eQSLs for contacts that were not in my log, which offers
an opportunity to give help the other guy by rejecting his eQSL, thus
telling him it's not in my log. My solution to this is usually not to upload
my log until after the contest deadline, although I have to admit I don't
always do that because it's so much easier to do it right away than to wait
and remember to upload after the deadline. All this is another reason for
requiring contest logs to be submitted to the organizers as early as
possible, so as to avoid this kind of goings-on.
In the end, we as contesters have to depend on one another's integrity. This
is particularly important in radio contesting, both because the essence of
the event is cooperation in completing QSOs, and because there are no
officials watching over our shoulders to make sure all of us follow the
rules.
My two cents' worth.
Rich
VE3IAY
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