I appreciate your post, MAL, thanks.
My post was pretty much to say that if the sponsors allow unrestricted packet
use at all times by all competitors as you propose, I would not be interested
in playing that game. That's all. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone.
That said, I disagree that contests' sponsors are choosing to do nothing
because of a revenue stream, rather that there are only 24 hours in a day and
quite correctly they have chosen to fry bigger fish and avoid the headache.
You may recall in the 90s when some far-seeing individuals like yourself
proposed that everyone turn in their logs electronically you were met with
"it'll never happen." Such is the way of ham radio contests. 10 years from
now, when it's trivial to bust packet cheaters in a way everyone agrees is a
no-brainer, this conversation will finally be over and people entering
unassisted won't be cheating, and people using packet will be understanding the
are on crutches and that some of them can actually run if they will only give
it a try.
MAL, you're just ahead of your time, that's all. Take it from ME, it's
frustrating to know all the answers :)
Mark, N5OT
----- Original Message -----
From: N7MAL
To: Mark Beckwith ; cq-contest@contesting.com
Sent: Thursday, December 15, 2005 11:24 PM
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Log checking questions
Mark right now every contest you enter you are entering against guys using
'crutches', many many guys. Over the years the contest sponsors have had a
great many opportunities to 'bust' the cheaters but they won't/don't. N6TJ and
I and others have brought this up several times over the past few years and
nothing, absolutely nothing, gets done about it. I have cited obvious cheaters
from my own logs, during SS, and nothing has changed. As long as the contest
sponsors first priority is revenue, from their magazines, cheating will
continue. You will get no help from the contest sponsors. Oh they say they
aggressively pursue cheating but talk is cheap, actions speak louder than words.
Several months ago, when this subject came up, I suggested a one(1) contest
weekend moratorium on the packet so the scores could be analyzed to determine
the impact on packet cheating. You would have thought I had shot someone's dog.
I was attacked viciously both publicly and privately. The packet cheaters
couldn't go one(1) contest without packet and apparently neither can one packet
sysop, K1TTT who publicly attacked me.
Anyone who knows me knows how strongly I feel against using packet during
contests. I wish there were an alternative but after fighting it for so many
years there seems to be no solution other than to make it a 'free-for-all'. I
will take comfort in knowing every contact in my log I found on my own without
any outside help.
I guess some of us are part of a dying breed, we actually know what a contest
means and how to operate in a contest without cheating.
MAL N7MAL
BULLHEAD CITY, AZ
http://www.ctaz.com/~suzyq/N7mal.htm
http://geocities.com/n7mal/
Don't worry about the world coming to an end today.
It's already tomorrow in Australia
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