[CQ-Contest] Cheating

[Kenneth E. Harker]

On Wed, Feb 05, 2003 at 06:09:51AM -0500, Ed Parish K1EP wrote:

> >I think it's unfortunate that they apparently chose to operate a private
> >contest machine of sorts, but it's probably no worse than what W2SZ does
> >every June to win the ARRL June VHF contest.  They send out a lot of private
> >rovers that never send in their own log and never work anyone else.
> 
> I don't think that those two situations are comparable, as you state they are.  (It actually is more akin to grid circling that prevailed several years ago before the contest rules were modified.)   

I think it is directly comparable.  In the two meter simplex FM contest that
WN3VAW began this discussion with, a club station is suspected of fielding 
several mobile stations to visit as many multiplier locations as possible 
and work the club station.  These mobile stations did not submit logs or 
apparently work anyone else in the contest.  They would definitely be 
considered "captive rovers" in any other VHF contest.

What W2SZ/1 has a reputation for doing is fielding several (as many as a 
dozen) mobile stations to visit as many multiplier locations as possible and 
work W2SZ/1.  In the case of the W2SZ/1 rovers, they might work a few other 
contesters on the low bands, and they might even be sending in their logs
nowadays, but their entire raison d'etre is to manufacture QSOs and
multipliers, especially on the microwave bands, for W2SZ/1 that W2SZ/1 would 
not otherwise naturally get from other individual competitors.  This is 
behavior that most VHF contesters would consider being a "captive rover."  
That this reputation is expressed in public, Ed, should not be a surprise 
to you in 2003.


"Grid circling," on the other hand, refers to a practice whereby several 
rovers followed one another in a caravan from one grid corner to another and 
worked each other in all possible grid combinations on all possible bands.
This sort of extensive inter-station teamwork was seen to be not in the 
spirit of open competition - other individual rover stations could not 
fairly compete.

-- 
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Kenneth E. Harker      "Vox Clamantis in Deserto"      kharker at cs.utexas.edu
University of Texas at Austin                   Amateur Radio Callsign: WM5R
Department of the Computer Sciences          Central Texas DX & Contest Club
Taylor Hall TAY 2.124                         Maintainer of Linux on Laptops
Austin, TX 78712-1188 USA            http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/
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