[CQ-Contest] Cheating

[Ron Notarius WN3VAW]

I would appreciate some input from those on the list who are involved log
checking of contests how to best approach the following situation:

As I've mentioned here in the past, my club runs a local 4 hour 2 Meter
Simplex contest each year.  The multiplier is the ZIP code that the station
is located in, and mobiles can be reworked as they change ZIP codes.

The contest chairman received today the log from the club station of a club
in one of the next counties.  The initial score seemed unusually high, and
on examination, we've found at least four amateurs who claim to have
operated mobile, worked only the club station, and worked the club station
from at least 5 or 6 different ZIP codes each.  One claimed 21 different
ZIP's.  This is not neccesarily impossible -- difficult but not
impossible -- but on further examination, some of these ZIP changes are only
2 or 3 minutes apart, and looking on the map, suffice to say, could only
have been possible if their mode of transit was a Star Trek era transporter
or equivalent.

No logs from these four stations were received, but their calls do not
appear in any other logs.  And the four amateurs are all members of the
club, some are officers.

It appears that they simply sat in their shacks and handed out multiple ZIP
codes solely to boost the club station's score.  IE, they cheated.

So far, I've emailed all concerned (at least to those we had e-mail
addresses for) to ask for further explanation and the missing logs.

Our options including simply removing the offending contacts if we receive
no log (and DQ'ing those ops), DQ'ing the entire club log on the grounds of
irregular or inaccurate logging, or doing nothing.

Suggestions on how to proceed next would be appreciated.

The funny thing of it is, they didn't need to cheat.  They won the Club
Station category hands down last year, and probably would have again this
year.  Go figure.

73, ron wn3vaw

'Never attribute to malice that which is adequately
  explained by stupidity.' --Hanlon's Razor