[CQ-Contest] Kudos to CQ WW for Busting Packet Cheaters!

[Chris Tran GM3WOJ]

Hello all

I have not seen the August CQ magazine yet, but
I'm glad that the CQ WW Committee are taking some
action about this - there is no point in having an
'unassisted' section in any contest unless some effort
is made to enforce the rules.

This has nothing to do with who is logged on or not
logged on to any DXCluster node - it's all about timing
of QSOs relative to spots appearing on the DXCluster
network.

Last year during CQ WW SSB I was one of the operators
at GZ7V Multi-Multi, and we had a good Telnet link to the
Eu Cluster network - on at least 7 occasions during the
contest I QSYed immediately to a spot frequency, yet was
beaten to the draw by a well-known Eu station who 
regularly wins as SOSB Unassisted.   If this had happened 
once or twice, I would have said 'wow - he's a really good S&P op.'
but more than that means only one thing - he's seeing the
spots at almost the same time we were.  An operator at M6T
commented later on exactly the same experience with this Eu
station.

I'm guessing that the CQ WW Committee have chosen some
criteria here e.g. if more than 20 QSOs are made within 5 mins.
of the spot appearing - whatever criteria they've chosen is open
to debate and future improvement, but the underlying idea of doing 
something about packet cheating in these contests is very important
to everyone who enters as genuinely unassisted.

73
Chris     GM3WOJ


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