WAY more than 0.1% of contesters are doing *something* dishonest. It's
human nature, and anyone who thinks otherwise is simply kidding
themselves. W0MU's post lists common examples, and I could probably
list at least as many more. There is absolutely zero reason to believe
that people are going to be MORE honest in an essentially blind hobby
competition than they are in real life ... where you have commonplace
things like exceeding a speed limit, telling white lies to friends and
family, exaggerating an entry on a resume, keeping excess change from a
clerk, overstating insurance claims or tax deductions, etc, etc, etc.
We all have our own soft definition of what is fair and "honest" in any
particular context, and that is particularly the case in a competition.
What percentage of the population of any city in the world would remain
civil and honest if there were no police? What percentage of the people
or companies in the world would file honest tax returns if there was no
oversight and no penalties for fraud? What percentage of the people in
the world violate drug or morality laws? And those are all situations
with serious welfare and social consequences. Compare that to a ham
radio contest with no viable oversight of the activity itself and only
indirect oversight of the result, where there is no penalty for
violation other than possible disqualification, and where the common
perception is that any harm caused is minor anyway. The majority of the
items hams have bought from other hams at flea markets or on eBay have
probably functioned as described, but the percentage that didn't is
large enough that many hams refuse to do either. And a contest is going
to be different??
There have been several valid concerns expressed about where we should
draw the line regarding radiosport enforcement, but pretending that the
root problem is 0.1% of the total doesn't seem to me to be the most
realistic approach to the issue.
Dave AB7E
On 8/18/2011 8:32 PM, David Thompson wrote:
>
> 99.9% of the contesters are honest but it takes just one or two to sour you
> on QRP and Low Power entries.
>
> Dave K4JRB
>
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