[CQ-Contest] Rules, CQing and CQ

[Gilmer, Mike]

One could argue that if "The Rules" do not expressly forbid something, then
it is OK to do that something. This seems to be the nature of sporting rules
in general, whether it be for auto racing or yachting or radio.  Some of the
best competitors push the rules in every direction that they can without
being potentially disqualified - some beyond that point.  The sponsoring
organizations, if they feel the envelope has been pushed enough, will
eventually tweak the rules.  Until they do so, the pushing continues as it
must.

Personally, I *feel* that a CQing mult station is a bit (only a bit)
distasteful, for many of the reasons cited here already (takes up bandwidth
for relatively low return, the need to turn away non-mults, etc.) However,
to say that it must be CHEATING if it *feels like* or *sounds like* cheating
is a rather unrealistic view: some *rule bendings* won't *feel like*
cheating to some people.

To top it off, apparently CQ themselves feel that mult station CQing is OK.
They actually say this in writing!  I suppose that it's unrealistic for CQ
to publish all the interpretations of the various rules in the magazine.
How many precious pages would that take up in a somewhat "general audience"
magazine?  Anyone ever read the rules of golf?  Jeez.  Somewhat
tongue-in-cheek, I suggest that the CQ magazine rules stipulate at the
bottom:  "If you REALLY want to be competitive, you'll have to read the CQWW
Contest Committee's interpretation of these rules in the CQWW CD-ROM.  Order
it now!"

All that said, how would one go about "zero-pointing" a contact anyway?  I
don't recall a way to do it while in the midst of running CT (for example)
during the contest and to do so after the contest one could be accused of
yet another controversial operation: post-contest log massaging.  To top it
off, Cabrillo doesn't allow one to Zero-out a QSO.

Since CQ's log checking software deals with dupes properly (nowadays, we are
suggested to leave dupes in for various reasons), perhaps we can expect the
same software to someday automatically (and without penalty?) zero-point any
contacts that violate the 10-min rule from any M/S log.  :)

73 Mike N2MG


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