VHFcontesting
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[VHFcontesting] Re: Good Buddy QSOs

To: <vhfcontesting@contesting.com>
Subject: [VHFcontesting] Re: Good Buddy QSOs
From: kharker@cs.utexas.edu (Kenneth E. Harker)
Date: Thu Jun 19 16:44:46 2003
On Wed, Apr 30, 2003 at 08:25:53PM +0000, Bill Olson wrote:
> >If your contest operation is all about maximizing _your_ contest score, as 
> >a
> >rover, then you're right - that's would be operating in good sportsmanship.
> >But, if your contest operation is all about maximizing the score of zz2zz,
> >then I would argue that is not in the spirit of fair competition, and is
> >unsportsmanlike and unethical.
> 
> I don't know HOW you could possibly police this withoutout making the rules 
> ridiculous. 

Perhaps peer pressue is a better enforcement mechanism.  If those who 
become or benefit from captive rovers or good buddy QSOs come to see 
that the contesting community considers their behavior unethical,
maybe they'll change their behavior.

>             I would say that amateur radio contests have survived quite 
> nicely for 60 or 70 years and there have always been some stations who were 
> on to benefit another station, not their own. I don't know if this is 
> "unethical" or not. 

In the past 60 or 70 years there have been plenty of out-right cheaters
in amateur radio contesting, be it excessive power, rubber-clocking the 
log, jamming their competition, using multiple callsigns, etc. and yet 
amateur radio contests have survived quite nicely, nonetheless.  But 
I don't think that justifies tolerance for choosing to cheat, either.

>                     If I get on at 10:45 local on Sunday night and just 
> look for and work my buddies to give them a point, that is MY CHOICE. My 
> buddy benefits. I don't. So what?? He still actually works me.

You are giving your buddies an unfair advantage over their competition,
are you not?

-- 
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Kenneth E. Harker      "Vox Clamantis in Deserto"      kharker@cs.utexas.edu
University of Texas at Austin                   Amateur Radio Callsign: WM5R
Department of the Computer Sciences          Central Texas DX & Contest Club
Taylor Hall TAY 2.124                         Maintainer of Linux on Laptops
Austin, TX 78712-1188 USA            http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/
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