SOA vs SO...what dilemna? LONG

[BK1ZX70SFL at aol.com]

I think W3LPL has summed it up the best - if an entrant claimed to be in one
category when he was a participant in another the answer to handling his
entry is simple - Disqualification.

Now for the hard part....proving this.

This is nothing new to the contest community, with computers and packet there
are just more efficient ways of increasing scores today than in the days of
the 'ole voice spotting nets. Unfortunately, for years this lieing has been
going on.  Since it wasn't dealt with back then, it has with the aid of
high-tech digital spotting mushroomed now.

Arguements as to why so many coincidental qso's with new multipliers were
worked right after a spotting on packet will be answered by the cheaters the
same way they were before packet...."heah, I was just tuning the
band"...or...."of course I wanted to see what the commotion was that all the
other locals were going after."

While I don't always agree with N6AA, he is dead on this time in that a
societal/morals  problem has found its way into our contesting ranks.  Being
rewarding to "work" at making contest QSOs seems to have been overlooked, it
is only a final box score that is being submitted - and not much concern
exists over how it was generated. Too bad, if all it is is numbers to some
people I guess it really doesn't matter how they were generated.

But how do you prove someone is ease dropping? Beyond a shadow of doubt - or,
since we are a litiguous people, beyond threat of a law suit.

Years ago there were traps set in one of the big contests for a contester who
enterred s/o that was believed to be ease dropping...sure enough he went for
the bait...logged a Q with a station in a juicy multiplier that wasn't even
on the air that weekend....it had been spotted....gotcha.

Until there is a way to prove someone is ease dropping, people apparently
feel they can lie and get away with it. This is a sad statement about those
entrants...they have forgotten that the true competition in a contest is
really oneself - who did they just beat with this stunt - can they truly puff
up their chest and feel good about their final score on 3830 knowing full
well what they did?  If for a second you just thought "well that's what W3XYZ
is doing" - STOP, and think real hard about what you're sayin'.

Maybe I'm the only one listening to those AM talk show hosts who talk about
the dumbing down of America, and more importantly how the values we embrace
are going down the tubes. Ham radio seems to be echoing society, as it
rightly should, we are indeed members of that society....too bad that means
there is an ingress of these bad habits/attitudes.

If we as a people can embrace a lieing politician I guess we as hams can
accept SOA ops who claim their scores as SO, huh?

NO

These guys cheated.

Don't misinterpret this, I don't mean the SOA cateogry is a bad thing, not at
all - it is just not the same thing as conventional SO.

I think SOA is a great class and I would not be ashamed to enter in it full
bore, but why do all these other guys feel they must lie about being in it?
If you participated as assisted just claim your score that way...it doesn't
hurt your club to go assisted, does it hurt you?

Is it that the liars need to feel more macho by having a bigger score thanks
to the packett spots and this makes them feel better? Sad. 

Once upon a time a long time ago when NCJ was printed in MN there was an
article by W0UA about cheating which was rather good in that it pointed out
how sad it is that some cheaters need to feel good about themselves by having
others have a higher opinion of their scores. In other words (fewer of them)
these guys cannot form an opinion of themselves without first seeing how
their score played in the eyes of another guy.

SOA is a very interesting category, one which is ideal for part time
contesters and exciting for a clubs members...allowing them to get the most
bang out of the few hours they can put into the contest. SOA can enhance the
casual entrants' scores greatly, AKA the ops are probably having more thrills
per hour...and maybe operating a little longer...and we all benefit, great.

But SOA is not SO. 

I return to my old definition of SO....SO is one set of gray cells behind the
callsign, period.

There is no need to combine the categories, there are two categories - with
and without assistance. How did this combining thing start...is this someone
hoping to justify their former trespasses? 

If we have reached some point in technological evolution where we can KNOW
someone was ease dropping, we should disqualify them.  

If we continue to be at that frustrating point where we are able to sense
what they are doing but cannot prove it, and these kinds of incidents are
increasing, lets do a gut check and remember that we as a less than
mainstream sub-hobby that needs to be self policed.

Peer pressure works. If a member in your club is doing this crap, as an
officer of the club I would hope that you felt it your duty to ask him to
straighten up his act so as not to soil your clubs image, what he does
reflects on others' image of your club - his actions can possibly be
tarnishing others' hard earned efforts which should sparkle.

Do the right thing....and it ain't re-writing the rules.

Jim - looking for a nice new /unique/ 4 call - K1ZX

>From k1jks at juno.com (William G Bithell)  Sat Sep 28 06:08:28 1996
From: k1jks at juno.com (William G Bithell) (William G Bithell)
Date: Sat, 28 Sep 1996 01:08:28 EDT
Subject: Gray line wallpaper
References: <01BBACAD.B5A304E0 at downing-1.intelenet.net>
Message-ID: <19960928.044009.5055.0.K1JKS at juno.com>


On Fri, 27 Sep 1996 19:54:30 -0700 jdowning at intelenet.net (John Downing)
writes:
>Hi y'all,
>
>Been wondering if one of the software talents on the reflector could
>conjure up an applet that would be useful to this contester - and 
>maybe
>others.  
>
>What I would like to see is a gray line world map - like the Geochron 
>clock -
>that updates in real time and displays as either Win95 wallpaper or in 
>a
>Win95 box or both.  
>
>The Hfx package is good as far as it goes but doesn't update in real 
>time.
>Maybe some Java code that is viewed through Netscape's browser or 
>maybe
>some ActiveX for Microsoft? 
>
>Your thoughts?  And, perhaps a volunteer?
>
>73,
>John
>
>N6YRU / V31DX / ????
>
>The Cuba Libre Contest Club
>
>We're not going to Belize - we're going somewhere else ...... further 
>east.
>
>CONTACT :   Joseph R Ahlgren
                       2218 N Tuckahoe St
                       Arlington VA 22205-1946

He has a nifty program   "GEOCLOCK"
He had a BBS    703-241-7980
There are shareware versions and a better registered version
Lotsa nice features

73, Bill   K1JKS at JUNO.COM