[CQ-Contest] Penalties??

[Ford Peterson]

Bravo Gene!  (N2AA) I have never seen so much whining about something that
is only natural in any competition, from pole vaulting to ham radio.  Get it
right or pay the price!  Too many times I've worked stations that are moving
so fast and with such sloppy on-the-air demeanor, I've pondered how in the
world they (or anyone pretending to work them) can ever get it right!
Nobody is that good at copying cw pileups!  (two good examples: QW TU 599
QRZ or how about having to wait 5 minutes for the jerk to give HIS
call--meanwhile he works 50 stations (or so he thinks))

enuf said...

Ford-N0OQW



----- Original Message -----
From: "Eugene Walsh" <EWALSH/0004504465 at MCIMAIL.COM>
To: "Contesters" <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2000 10:41 PM
Subject: [CQ-Contest] Penalties??


>
>
> Hello there;
>
> I have resisted commenting on one of my favorite subjects, but find
> myself weakening.  I figger if it has passed N7BG's threshold
> of irritation (He is usually imperturbable) then there isn't much
> time left.
>
> I agree with VE4XT (And others) that penalties are good.  I actually
> feel that penalties are the best thing that has happened to competition
> since transceivers.  At last, you can be fairly sure that your
> competitors have played it straight.  The integrity of the CQWW, in part
> because of the "Culture of adjudication", is equalled by none other.
>
> I agree with N7BG that one should eschew whining, play by the rules du
> jour, have a good time and do the best that you can.  Work as many folks
> as you can in as many places possible (People and Places), turn in your
> score card and see how it stacks.  What else??
>
> I do not understand N5RP or W2CE, who seem uninterested in competing
> but impugn the sanity of those who do compete.  This may actually be
> a valid observation, but not germane to this discussion.  Also, one
> might have a hard time, around here, selling that as the high road.
>
> The argument that it is now easy to detect busted calls, so there
> should be no penalty, does not wash.  The amount of work in operating
> the system is huge.  There are a few people (ie. N6AA, N6TW et al) who
> spend a large amount of time on this.  Others, in the past as this was
> being developed (Notably K2SS), spent very large amounts of time and
> effort for years.  The idea of all of this effort is to protect the
> integrity of the contest, not to relieve the responsibility of the
> operator to log correctly.  The strategy is simple!  To forestall
> difficulties, just write down the call sign of the person you are
> talking with - no problem.  If you write down someone elses call sign,
> or a call sign which has not been issued, then it may cost you in the
> scoring.  Now this is really not too much to ask, is it?  Case closed.
>
> It is beyond my understanding why anyone would want to return to
> the situation where the one who writes down the largest number of
> guesses wins.  Most people don't "CHEAT", they "GUESS"; often working
> the same station 4 or 5 times until he stops calling (ie. until you get
> it right).  Does anyone really want, once again, to compete against that?
> These days if you guess it might cost you more, if you guess wrong,
> than if you left it out.  This is exactly the way it should be and,
> I pray, the way it will stay.  This is, to be sure, A CONTEST!
> A game of skill.
>
> With fondness for all who love this thing of ours;
>
> 73 Gene N2AA
>
>
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>


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