[CQ-Contest] Guessing or miscopied?

[DougKR2Q at aol.com]

In a message dated 5/7/99 10:33:06 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
v31jp at logical123.net writes:

<< A sudden QSB changes an "N" to an "I",
 or a "B" to an "H", and is so entered. [snip] This does happen,
 but not often. [snip] Do these deserve a penalty more than the loss of
 the contact. I don't think so.  >>

Doo-doo happens.  If we EXCLUDE out and out cheaters (very few), then the 
presumption is that everyone would get a score of 100% on what they 
work/copy/log.  But this is not the case.  We all differ is our ACTUAL 
ability, despite our PERCEIVED abilities (at least from the individual's own

perspective) being the same (perfect).  Nobody KNOWINGLY copies and/or logs
a 
mistake (remember, we are excluding cheating), yet we all agree that some of

us "do better" than others.

That is part of what a contest is all about.  Despite each of us doing our 
best, we just don't always get it right, even though AT THAT TIME, we
thought 
we did!  QSB, QRN, QRM are just additional factors that interfere with our 
ability to both copy accurately AND recognize when an error is made.

Yes, an error is an error and should be handled the same in terms of 
treatment and penalty.  If there are "too many" errors (which you correctly 
point out are typically FEW in number) then the shift can be made from the 
penalty phase to the DQ phase.

de Doug KR2Q

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