[CQ-Contest] Dinged Good QSOs

[k8cc]

At 09:55 AM 8/3/01 -0400, Bill Coleman wrote:
>Yes, I remember putting in a 20 Q log for the CQWW CW a few years back, 
>only to have my score reduced by 60% - primarily due to stateside stations 
>who didn't bother to log my QSO. ARGH!

I do the logchecking for the ARRL 160M and ARRL 10M contests for the 
ARRL.  We definitely practice the "innocent until proven guilty" approach 
which, as N6TR has pointed out, sometimes allows busted QSOs to be counted 
as good.

Writing programs to cross-check actual QSO data has been one of the most 
challenging software tasks I have ever encountered.  Its not too hard when 
both ends of the QSO are present - by looking at the callsigns and 
exchanges at both ends, the vast majority of cases can be resolved.  BTW, 
we'd have a lot easier time of it if more contesters would LEARN TO SET 
THEIR CLOCK/CALENDARS ACCURATELY.

However, in certain cases it appears that QSOs at one end or the other were 
omitted.  This makes it *VERY* hard to correlate QSOs, particularly if 
busted information is involved.  We check logs by validating QSO 
information first, then duping.  In cases where duplicate QSOs are 
involved, if an entrant busts the first QSO with a station, the second 
(i.e. "dupe") QSO can be counted as good if the exchanges are OK.  However, 
if the station being worked does not log the second QSO (because its a 
dupe) the entrant cannot get credit for the QSO - in fact, it will turn up 
as a NIL!

Therefore, my plea to the contesters of the world is IF YOU WORK A STATION 
(i.e., send an exchange) LOG THE QSO.  If you don't, you might be hurting 
someone at the other end who thinks he's had a legitimate QSO with you.  It 
does not hurt you to do this - your logging program shows your real time 
score less dupes and no contest that I know of penalizes entrants for 
excessive dupes.  Furthermore (at least the way we check logs) a dupe QSO 
is "nulled out" for scoring and checking purposes - i.e., you can't "bust" 
a dupe.

Logs which are complete, showing every QSO made (dupe or not) help the 
logchecker in many ways and will cut down on the number of "good" QSOs 
which turn up as "bad" in the logchecking.

73,

Dave/K8CC


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