The Meaning of Disqualification
Masa, AJ3M, has initiated a thread with a lengthy post
about the disqualification of 4U1WB in the recent CQ WPX SSB Contest.
Rather than trying to address all of Masa's concerns in one
long post, I will attempt to compose several focused messages.
The first message is on the meaning of disqualification.
Masa sent me the following on October 24:
"I am sure that you, as a fellow contester, know that considering an entrant
for a disqualification means that the contest committee is challenging the
operator’s integrity and sportsmanship. I fully understand that the
CQ WPX Contest Committee’s intention is to protect the integrity of the
competition and address any violations of the trust that underlies radiosport
competition. My reputation in the worldwide contest community is very important
to me. Our Club’s reputation is equally important. The damage was done."
The meaning of DISQUALIFICATION for the CQ WPX Contest uses the following
dictionary definition:
"to put out of a competition etc for breaking rules. She was disqualified for
being too young." Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K
Dictionaries Ltd
Thus, disqualification in itself should not impact ones reputation.
A recent news story (though not unique), illustrates this point. When
a high school athlete broke his leg in a cross-country competition, his
teammate carried him to the finish line. Both were disqualified because
they broke the rule that runners are prohibited from touching or assisting
another runner during the race. The pair's reputations seem to have been
enhanced by this event:
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/10/high-school-runner-carries-teammate-broken-leg
On the other hand, if the athletes had been disqualified for using
performance enhancing drugs, then their reputations would have been
negatively impacted.
Simply put, disqualification needs to be viewed in the proper perspective.
I applaud Scott, KA9FOX, for his low-key response on this reflector
on June 3, 1994 to being disqualified in the 1993 WPX contest for
signing KG9/KA9FOX:
"The effort was not serious (nobody would compete seriously from my
seriously deficient station) so it was no biggie. Heck, it gave me
something fun to talk about at Dayton! (wore a name badge
with "Dee Qued" as the name)"
Terry N4TZ, CQ WPX Contest Director
This message posted at 1519 UTC, October 27, 2017
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