"if we let it." Is the applicable phrase. 'Packet', or probably more
correctly, 'dx spotting nets', are nothing new. Think back, way back,
if you were in a populated area before there was packet there were voice
repeaters being used to pass dx information between multi ops. Were
there cheaters in those days who listened in and entered as single op?
Why are there rules about using non-amateur means to arrange contacts?
Because there were reports of people phoning up their friends in rare
countries to get multipliers. Are there ops who have violated power
limits? Are there ops who have tried to use rare portable prefixes and
caused rules to be rewritten or clarified?
The key here is to find, expose, and force out those cheaters who would
lessen our enjoyment of our chosen hobby. My tracking of the obvious
packet cheaters is aimed at just one relatively recent revision to the
rules in some contest that prevents operators from soliciting contacts
outside of the contest operating bands/modes or via non-amateur
means(the internet). Hopefully exposing how easy it can be to track
this type of cheating will convince some of those who may be inclined to
try to cheat this way not to do it. Unfortunately it is not quite as
easy to expose cheaters who use excess power, or listen during 'off'
time, or rubber clock band changes, or add contacts, or listen on
spotting nets as single ops, or exceeds their license limits, or bends
or breaks any of the other rules.
Obviously the wrtc format is designed to eliminate chances to break
rules and make sure that the competition is head to head, unfortunately
its not possible for world wide contests to put observers in every
competitor's station. Fortunately there is always at least one person
who knows that they cheated. Making sure that they know that cheating
by 'self spotting' is not tolerated and will be at least exposed to the
world, and hopefully result in sanctions by the contest sponsors, is one
way of putting pressure on them to stay within the lines. Making sure
that your neighbor who contests with the big switch engaged and then
enters as low power knows that you know he is cheating is another way.
We must police ourselves, and to do that sometimes is not easy.
David Robbins K1TTT
e-mail: mailto:k1ttt@arrl.net
web: http://www.k1ttt.net
AR-Cluster node: 145.69MHz or telnet://dxc.k1ttt.net
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