Good day all,
I am not singling Mark out but I am using a snippet of his email (see below) as
an example of a number of similar comments I have heard or read on this subject.
DX clusters, spotting, packet (whatever the form) is just another tool that
some choose to use and others not. I don't now nor for the foreseeable future
will I operate ASSISTED in a contest. That is my personal choice.
I have for a very long time been contemplating on how you can determine whether
someone has used ASSISTANCE by scrutinizing their log. The simple relationship
of a "SPOT" for station XYZ at time X and an entry in competitors log Y minutes
later is at best circumstantial. Even if the only contacts that competitor made
where always some minutes after a "SPOT" for those stations appeared it would
still be circumstantial; suspicious perhaps but not incontrovertible proof of
using ASSISTANCE. Perhaps in a multi/multi operation it might be even more
suspicious and more the likely but still absolute proof.
I am sure this topic has been discussed before (ad nauseam) and there must be
some documentation of some sort by Contest organizers that state their position
and methodology in making such determinations but I have been unsuccessful in
finding same. Does anyone have any pointers to such documents or discussions?
CQ has been conducting a survey of late and one of their questions has to do
with the idea of combing ASSISTED and NON-ASSISTED into one category. I take
this as a sign that it is very difficult to police this particular rule;
difficult to the point of being near impossible.
Seems to me that ASSISTED or NOT-ASSISTED is splitting hairs - some choose to
use a tool and others not, much the same as some choose to log on a computer
and others on paper. Perhaps there needs to be categories for "COMPUTER LOGGED"
and another for "PAPER LOGGED"; after all, those that choose to log on a
computer have an unfair advantage over those that choose to log on paper.
Cheers, Graham ve3gtc
-----Original Message-----
From: cq-contest-bounces@contesting.com
[mailto:cq-contest-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Mark Luhrman
Sent: September 21, 2011 17:06
To: cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: [CQ-Contest] Cheating and bad journalism
<much clipped>
On several occasions while I was using packet in the assisted category, I saw
hams sometimes jump on these spots within 2 mins. After I spotted the stations.
And then later claim unassisted.
<much clipped>
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