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Re: [CQ-Contest] RDXC Entry Reclassified to High Power

To: cq-contest@contesting.com <cq-contest@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] RDXC Entry Reclassified to High Power
From: Drew Vonada-Smith <drew@whisperingwoods.org>
Date: Sun, 9 Oct 2016 11:34:56 -0500
List-post: <cq-contest@contesting.com">mailto:cq-contest@contesting.com>
Contest Friends,

This is the worst possible outcome, the one I feared.  If RDXC has discouraged 
Bob from working further contests, this alone is more of a detriment to our 
contest community than all the benefits of RDXC are worth.  Bob is 
understandably tired of the fight, but let's support him nonetheless.  If you 
call a man a cheater, you had better do so in the open, with the facts to back 
it up and make your reasoning clear.  In this, RDXC is clearly deficient.  In 
recent years, CQ WW has done this the right way.  This is the wrong way.

My emails to RDXC have resulted in responses (all from RA3AUU) amounting to 
little more than "we have always done it this way".  That, whether true or not, 
is irrelevant.  Igor didn’t even remember my concerns from last year.  This 
tells me that they (he?) simply don't care.  

My boycotting of this contest goes without saying.  But I will also be 
contacting WRTC today and making my concerns of impropriety regarding RDXC 
clearly known.  This issue affects WRTC qualification, and as such is certainly 
of legitimate concern to them.  I request that those of you who agree with me 
do the same.  

73,
Drew K3PA
 
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Message: 8
Date: Sat, 8 Oct 2016 09:17:02 +0000
From: Bob Henderson <bob.5b4agn@gmail.com>
To: cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] RDXC Entry Reclassified to High Power
Message-ID:
        <CALBVtwHuJu0+pJzJv4tER7m4kzfUd5kF0jzgdRkfRcRq0VLtEw@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

This will be my final post on this subject unless the RDXC committee
suddenly relents; making available to scrutiny the elaborate analysis they
claim to have carried out.  I see little prospect of this given the
complete lack of evidence any such analysis exists.  It is time for me to
move on to enjoy more productive pursuits.  You might imagine, by now I
have more than had my fill of this issue.


Thank you once again to all who have lent support in my fruitless fight
against this injustice.  Not all notes have been entirely supportive.  Some
seem to feel I have been unfair in the limited criticism I have made on the
behaviour of RA3AUU.  On the contrary, I believe I have shown remarkable
restraint.  It has been suggested I have committed a sin by drawing
attention to what has occurred; apparently I will have set back the fight
against LP power cheats.  Forgive me if I lack sympathy for this view.  Should
a setback have been suffered this will be entirely due to a corrupt system
of adjudication which embraces the belief it is acceptable to hang a few
innocents as an example to others who may be guilty.


In my public discourse I set out to limit my observations to those which
challenge the efficacy of the allegation and the lack of fairness in the
process leading to the sanction which flowed from it.  I have held back
from expressing my view on the origins of this sorry saga.  I will hold
back no longer.


Despite his protestations to the contrary, evidence points to the motor
behind all of this being RA3AUU himself.  At the outset he established
himself as my sole interface to the RDXC committee.  All contact would be
via him as the English speaker.   Until the final note from UA1AAF no other
members of the committee have been identified.  RA3AUU is also the owner of
P33W; the only station with which comparative RBN data has been
presented.  Most
likely the actions taken stem from an emotionally charged belief my LP
score was too close for comfort to the HP score of LZ2HM who operated P33W.


A review of my archive of communications with RA3AUU reveals him to have
acted in a disingenuous fashion with twists, turns and cartwheels
characterising his dialogue from 11th August onward.  Why might this be if
the process was being handled with honesty?


Despite protestations to the contrary, evidence firmly points to the
motivation behind this attack having originated in the P33W shack.  While
the source of this motivation is clear the nature of it is less so.  The
most charitable of the possibilities I have entertained is that RA3AUU and
his prot?g? LZ2HM reacted emotionally to the gap between my LP score and
the HP score of P33W.  Likely it wasn?t long before they became convinced
the only possible explanation had to be I had cheated.  LZ2HM is highly
confident in his own talents and RA3AUU enormously proud of his P33W
station; what other reason could there be?  Under the guise of objective
analysis a search for evidence supporting the flawed contention will have
followed.  Once collected, all that remained was to persuade other members
of RDXC committee and retribution could swiftly follow.


In more recent communication I sense signs of regret in RA3AUU that he
chose to travel this road but all too late.  Having bulldozed the committee
into accepting his ?analysis? there would be no way back without
unacceptable loss of face.  The die was firmly cast well before the door to
communication with me was opened.


My conclusions:

   - RA3AUU?s clear conflict of interest should have entirely precluded his
   involvement in this process, if indeed there would have been a process
   without his direct involvement.


   -  Aspects of RDXC adjudication have given rise to concern among
   participants over several years.  The manner in which my case has been
   conducted highlights a huge deficit in the integrity of the adjudication
   process.  I hope the RDXC committee will learn from it.


   - RDXC is a WRTC 2018 qualifying event.  It is to be hoped members of
   the sanctioning committee will consider this matter serious enough to
   justify their own investigation.


   - Perhaps a code of conduct governing adjudication of international
   contests is required.  With establishment of a standard governing the
   reasonable determination cheating has taken place and the application of
   appropriate sanction, ill-considered and partisan adjudication might then
   be avoided.  Contests whose adjudicators decline to subscribe, might
   also be avoided.

This past 8 weeks have by far been the most unpleasant I have had to endure
in the whole of my ham radio career.  Nothing else comes within 100 miles.  It
is now time for me to draw a line.  My enthusiasm for contesting having
been thoroughly drained, I will for now, better spend my time elsewhere.


Bob, 5B4AGN

P3F in RDXC 2016, SOAB Mix LP.


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End of CQ-Contest Digest, Vol 166, Issue 26
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