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[CQ-Contest] My RED CARD - IT9GSF

To: cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: [CQ-Contest] My RED CARD - IT9GSF
From: "fabio.grisafi@libero.it" <fabio.grisafi@libero.it>
Reply-to: "fabio.grisafi@libero.it" <fabio.grisafi@libero.it>
Date: Sat, 6 Apr 2013 10:06:06 +0200 (CEST)
List-post: <cq-contest@contesting.com">mailto:cq-contest@contesting.com>

This is a message I have sent to WRTC Director explaining the Red Card. I send 
this email to all the community because I wish everybody understands that I am 
not a cheater. 
John 8:7: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."
Best regards,Fabio - IT9GSF.
-----------------------------------------------



Dear President, Mr. Doug Grant, K1DG,
I wish to ask your presence in an affair that is involving me, and my possible 
partecipation to the coming WRTC 2014 event.
As you probably know, the battle to win a TL qualifiction in Europe, expecially 
#EU2, was very hard. Most of the partecipants went to other countries (D4, CN, 
EA8, E7) to get points in the qualifying events.
I partecipated most of the events from my personal station near Palermo, 
Sicily, up on a little mountain almost 1000 meters abv sea (IU9T, II9T).During 
some qualifyng events I even gave permition to use my station to other 
operators, as to the late Rytis LY4U that was a past WRTC partecipant and judge.
Rytis partecipated the CW ARRL International DX Contest in 2011 as SOp from my 
station and he was 5th in EU and second in #EU2 just behind big 
station/operator DL6FBL (DR1A). It was a big pleasure to let him operate my 
station and to help him with food and beverage (the only help I gave during 
contest. He operated full time with few hours of sleep only).
Rytis was a good friend of mine and I learned many things abt operating with 
his example. We partecipated some contests togheter and enjoyed some 
vacations.I know he is looking at me from the sky while I write this email.
After some partecipations from II9T/IU9T (my station), with some old sicilian 
friends (one of them is Antonello, IT9EQO) and some enthusiast new comers (eg 
Carmelo, IT9AUG), we decided to build a new contest station (II9P) in Ragusa 
(abt 300 km from my QTH in the other side of Sicily, near their home).
It was a big effort! During summer 2011 I drove to Ragusa 20 times (with abt 
12.000 Km of driving in hard roads between mountains). On October 2011 the 
antennas were not yet ready and the station was not ready as well. Anyway we 
decided to try to partecipate the CQWW SSB with some foreign friends. First 
attempt was a M2 partecipation in CQWW SSB 2011. Operators that went to Sicily 
in that occasion were Oleg YL3DW, Sam LY5W, Kaspars YL1ZF, and Dima RA9CO. 
Unfortunately the station didn't work as we were thinking and we stopped the 
operations on the first day of the contest. What a pity! First, I was thinking 
the effort of the foreign operators that flew to Sicily and that didn't go to 
other big stations/QTHs just to help us to make a dream real. Second, it was an 
other partecipation for a qualifying event for the WRTC gone in the wind.
I was discouraged and I was thinking to go back my home and partecipate again 
as Single Op from there. But my friends in Sicily asked me help again and I was 
again with them.
During the CW Contest, that year, I operated the II9P station as SOp 20 meters 
with my call sign (II9T) and it was a new country record (even if propagation 
was not the best for 20 meters with higher bands widely open). Then, I operated 
my station for SOp in some contests and was first place Italy in 2012 ARRL INT 
CW and 4th in EU just over S50A, Tine, 5th place. (In memory of Rytis that 
operated the year before and that passed away, RIP!).
Friends were calling and help arrived.
The station in Ragusa (II9P) was growing and some newcomers operated that 
station in CQ WPX SSB in 2012 as M2. I beated them as SingleOp from II9T with 
only 36 hours of operating time, HI! But it was a big occasion to undestand 
differences and problems with that QTH. They needed filters, different 
towers/antennas, different radios.
Then, after some tests, we decided to partecipate the CQWW SSB Contest 2012 
from the new station as M/S, the most difficult category (now I know!).
With five operating desks (and two interlocked radios in some of them) we tried 
to alternate bands between RUN and MULT stations. Interlocks between operating 
desks didn't work. We used two lamps with different colours saying to all of 
the operators: "If you have the RED LAMP you can operate as RUNNER, if you have 
the BLUE LAMP you can operate as MULT STATION and work multipliers only".
Most of the time it worked, but I was very unhappy when I saw some operators 
working mults on 20 meters while the BLUE LAMP was on the 80 meters operating 
desk!The same, when I saw some callsigns left in the entry window of the log 
without the enter key pressed. Then I asked the operators to pay attention but 
it was very difficult sometimes. Now I know that a phisical interlock is a must 
in a MS station with different operating desks because, if operators are not 
few, maybe somebody had not understood exatly what to do.
Anyway my attempt to make some friends happy and to help somebody to build a 
new station and to introduce some new operators to the world of contesting was 
done!
After the contest, with the new rule of five days of dead line, I tried to send 
the log.
First I was thinking to send the log with those QSO made against the 10 minute 
rule marked X-QSO: in the cabrillo.
I did it, but I didn't rename the cabrillo file! 
After some nights (I am a journalist at the italian national TV and they were 
days of full work) I re-imported the cabrillo file into WinTest (the software 
we use) to check if the log was complaint with the rules and the response was 
OK.
Unfortunately, I didn't send immediately the cabrillo file that I imported in 
WT but, again, I asked WinTest to make the cabrillo file!
Then I saw that in the new cabrillo all the QSOs marked X-QSO: were not 
present. I then asked the WinTest forum why this happened and the answer was 
that WinTest doesn't take into account X-QSO:s! (You can see my requests in the 
WT Archive).
Very Bad! It was the day of the dead line. I then did the bad thing; I changed 
some times in some QSOs (the QSO I was thinking were not so bad mistakes) and 
marked some QSOs as X-QSO: to not give the other station a BAD QSO.
I now know this thing was enough to disqualify me, and all the members of the 
team, from the CQWW SSB 2012. I know it is a very bad thing. But the Director 
of CQWW, Randy, Vice-President of the WRTC Board of Directors, that reads this 
email in CC, answered that we surpassed the number of 18 time changes that was 
considered the limit.
Well, I want to note that 18 time changes in 1000 QSOs are 1,8% and in 5000 
QSOs are 0,036%. We have make 6002 QSOs in that contest and 18 QSOs are 0,0029%.
Randy sent to me an email with the list of the QSOs with time changes. This is 
the list: 
>Date        Call    Call    You     His   Diff
>10/27/2012  II9P    ED1R    0331    0333    2       orig log 0333   
>10/27/2012  II9P    P40L    0341    0337    -4      orig log 0338  -3
>10/27/2012  II9P    TO9R    0341    0338    -3      orig log 0339  -2
>10/27/2012  II9P    TK9R    0351    0348    -3      orig log 0348
>10/27/2012  II9P    3V8BB   0351    0348    -3      orig log 0348
>10/27/2012  II9P    VP2MDG  0401    0359    -2      orig log 0359
>10/27/2012  II9P    EE6E    0458    0456    -2      orig log 0458 we were 
>runner on 80 (Ok)This QSO time was not modified.
>10/27/2012  II9P    TO9R    0536    0534    -2      orig log 0536 WE were 
>CQing(ok) This QSO time was not modified.>10/27/2012  II9P    SN6Z    0656    
>0658    2       orig log 0656 (varied by him .. Any SDR?) This QSO time was 
>not modified.>10/27/2012  II9P    JW7QIA  0854    0852    -2      orig log 
>0854 This QSO time was not modified.>10/27/2012  II9P    VE2DXY  1244    1235  
>  -9      orig log 1244 This QSO time was not modified. after the contest, 
>maybe some operator did not press the enter key immediately after the QSO and 
>pressed the enter key at the start of the new 10 minute window.>10/27/2012  
>II9P    YV4MP   1653    1655    2       orig log 1655 
>10/27/2012  II9P    TI5N    1654    1656    2       orig log 1656   
>10/27/2012  II9P    ZP6DYA  1716    1719    3       orig log 1719 
>10/27/2012  II9P    V47JA   1726    1730    4       orig log 1730 
>10/27/2012  II9P    EK3GM   1736    1730    -6      orig log 1730   
>10/27/2012  II9P    4L9QQ   1736    1734    -2      orig log 1734
>10/28/2012  II9P    UA0IBX  0058    0056    -2      orig log 0057 This should 
>be a -1 and so not counted >10/28/2012  II9P    ED8W    0223    0221    -2     
> orig log 0223 This QSO time was not modified.>10/28/2012  II9P    6Y9X    
>0256    0254    -2      orig log 0256 This QSO time was not 
>modified.>10/28/2012  II9P    VR2XMT  0630    0627    -3      orig log 0627 
>10/28/2012  II9P    DU1AV   0639    0648    9       orig log 0648 NINE MINUTES 
>"RUBBER CLOCKING"!!! I Didn't remember that!>10/28/2012  II9P    3V8BB   0640  
>  0634    -6      orig log 0634 
> orig log means "original log be4 rubber clocking".
So, these are 23 QSOs and the really modified QSOs are almost 15 QSOs. So they 
are less of 18 QSOs and even if considered 23, they are 0,003% of the QSOs in a 
log of 6202 QSOs.
I immediately admitted the "Rubber clocking" when I received the official mail 
by Randy, K5ZD.
The problem is that I did this bad practice to remain in the M/S category and 
not to surpass other stations. In fact our position in the score was 23rd in 
the MS class (declared scores) with those QSOs and without those QSOs.
The rules say, at IV B1 , that "Logs found in violation of the 10-minute rule 
may be reclassified as M2".
I have asked the CQWW CC, in person of his Director, Randy, K5ZD, to 
re-consider the RED CARD and change it to a YELLOW CARD because of some 
circumstances:
1) It is not right that foreign and new-comer operators of II9P pay for a 
mistake made personally by me. (Operators are: I4AVG, I4VEQ, IT9AUG, IT9CHU, 
IT9CJC, IT9EQO, IT9PKO, IV3YYK, ON4LG, S52RU).
2) A YELLOW CARD is objectively enough because in every sport - or game - a RED 
CARD is given only when you do something so bad and so strong that you are 
making the other competing team not able to win. Even in that scenario, a red 
card is committed only to the player that do the penalty. Not to the full team.
3) Some components of the CQWW Contest Committee, in Europe, were informing 
other operators that wanted to join us that we will be disqualified, months 
before the official mail by the CQWW Contest Director. These rumors made 
personally by contest committee members are not sportsmanlike. This is a clear 
proof that there was a prejudice by some CQWW CC members that were competirors 
with us. These CQWW CC members are judges in CQWW and are partecipants in CQWW 
and in WRTC too!
4) Two operators only were disqualified at the end of the games for WRTC in 
#EU2 and these two operators are IZ3EYZ (the best contest operator/engineer in 
Italy - He doesn't need to go to D4, EA8, CN8 to win) and IT9GSF.
5) If we want to be really honest all of the operators in Italy (and in 
Morocco!) should be disqualified. In fact, power limit in Italy is 500W (out) 
and in Morocco is 50W(out)/ 250W (input at the station). I use 800 W at II9P 
with two Motorola MOSFET amplifiers (MICOM). At II9P we are reducing power and 
improving antenna systems. We look at NQ4I! We use LP-100 Wattmeters and we 
will record our power in PCs. Other operators - in Morocco for example - 
improved their power to 5KW and 10KW and some even to the 20KW level!
So, if we want to be honest ... why to disqualify WITH A RED CARD  a new team 
that had problems in software and interlocks and that adjusted times to remain 
in the M/S category at one of the twenthyeth positions in the scores? Why not 
giving other teams/pertecipants a CARD for their objective high power?
- High power (not legal) is a way to win ... making the other honest 
partecipant unable to win (so a red card is a right penalty).
- Time changes (not done to surpass others) is not a way to win ... and so a 
yellow card have been the right penalty.
So, I wrote to Randy that it is up to him! As I have said before, you are in 
the country of Thomas Jefferson and I wish to call the 8th amendment of the 
Constitution of the United States of America: "Excessive bail shall not be 
required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments 
inflicted".
It is unusual, in fact, that a new team is punished in that manner.
It is a common idea, here in Europe, that a RED CARD was given only to DQ some 
operators (IZ3EYZ and IT9GSF) to put them out of the WRTC.In fact the RC were 
given in the right time to disqualify them from WRTC. It was a too precise 
clock!
This is the reason I am sending this email to the Director of WRTC. I hope that 
Mr. Doug Grant, K1DG, can moderate the debate and admit Matteo, IZ3EYZ, and me, 
IT9GSF, in the WRTC competition.
I am sure that Randy, K5ZD, is in good faith even if some of his argumentation 
are excessive or false. In fact I have sayd that I will follow his suggestions 
and that I can help the Contest Committee in the future (SDR recorder at my 
station?).
This request, with all the answers, will be published in a cont magazine here 
in Italy.
Thank you, again, for your attention.
Best regards, Fabio Grisafi - IT9GSF.








 
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