I think Hal W1NN's comments summarize the issues very clearly and I agree with
his assessment of the situation. At the risk of
offending my European friends, the reality of the situation in Europe is that
cheating is more prevalent than it is in the US.
Just looking at the list of DQ'ed calls in CQWW shows that clearly. The
attitude of many "big guns" in Europe is that there is no
longer any point in operating QRP, low power or any of the unassisted
categories because a good score will always raise suspicion as
to the honesty and legality of the operation. Many ops have just thrown in
the towel and simply operate the high power assisted
categories to dispel any such suspicions and avoid such accusations.
Ironically, these very same operators are often the same ones
who operate well in excess of 1500 W total output power but that seems to be
"acceptable cheating". That is, every one else is
doing and nobody is getting DQ'ed for that, so "why shouldn't I do it?"
I wish there was a solution that would keep these "lesser" categories alive for
those who want to play the game fair and square.
Randy K5ZD and the Committee spend countless hours scrutinizing logs and
weeding out unscrupulous behavior and they should be
commended for that. Most other contest sponsors don't even approach that
level of log checking.
In the back of my mind, I keep thinking there is a technological solution to at
least part of the problem. The requirement by CQWW
to provide audio recordings for unassisted categories is a step in that
direction. Should we also require a video recording of the
operation and extend that to all categories? How about digital power monitors
that log power output to a binary file that must be
submitted along with the log? Should we eliminate Cabrillo text files and
instead require submission of binary files (that can't
be edited post-contest)? None of these are fool-proof and in the end require
someone to spend even more countless hours analyzing
them.
What else can we do to improve policing?
--- Rich K1CC
> In summary:
>
> What is being proposed is not a "combining" of categories but the elimination
> of the most popular category EU is not
overwhelmingly in favor of
> "combining"
> The contester survey needs to be improved Contesters still enter SO more than
> SOA There is much that can be done to improve
policing That log
> checking presents some difficulties is not a good reason for eliminating the
> SO category.
>
> 73,
>
> Hal W1NN
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