[CQ-Contest] Recordings and Log Corrections

[Kenneth E. Harker]

     In the July/August 2003 NCJ, Robert N6TV reports on the Contest 
Forum at the Visalia International DX Convention 2003 (I was not in
attendance.)  Something I read surprised me.

     N6TV writes "The fourth issue revolved around recording contests 
and then going back and fixing up the log before submitting it.  The
exit question asked was `Should the use of recording devices of any kind 
to correct a log be explicitly banned in the contest rules?'  All five
panelists replied `no.'"  The panelists were NT1N, W3ZZ, K3ZO, N6AA,
and N6TV.

     The only reason I can think of that the answer to that question 
could be "no" is if you feel that this form of cheating is already 
prohibited under existing rules, but is that really the case?

     Do we really want people operating the contest after the contest is 
over?  It's one thing to go back through a log that you have left notes in 
and make corrections based upon those notes.  In that situation, you are not 
semantically altering the information in the log - you are syntactically 
changing it (reformatting it, if you will) into a form the contest sponsor
wants.  It isn't really any different from converting a log from .DAT to 
.CBR format - the same data is there, it's just in a different structure.

     But going back to a recording after a contest and listening again
for a callsign or exchange that you didn't copy during the contest period 
is just wrong.  It is as wrong as checking a log against a callbook or 
emailing other operators just to check to make sure you are in their log.
It is operating the contest after the contest is over.  

    Since I wasn't there, can anyone explain to me how the forum arrived at
their conclusion?

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------