[CQ-Contest] Packett can cheapen the competitor in all of us ifwe let it...

[N7MAL]

GIVE ME A BREAK!!!!!!!!!!

"""'Packet', or probably more correctly, 'dx spotting nets', are nothing
new.  Think back, way back, if you were in a populated area before there was
packet there were voice
repeaters being used to pass dx information between multi ops.  Were there
cheaters in those days who listened in and entered as single op?""""

In those days, during contests, the voice spots were minimal and were
controlled within a local area. In the early days of Packet there were only
local area clusters. I lived in San Diego county, in those days, and the San
Diego DX Club and premier contesters like K6NA, N6ND, W6YA. etc  kept a very
careful watch. In those days local peer pressure kept any cheating and
improprieties to a bare minimum. The only section 'EVER' spotted during SS
was VE8. Now every section is spotted ad-nauseam and yes even I've been
spotted during SS, 10 Meter, 160, etc. What possible reason in any US
domestic contest could there ever be for spotting N7MAL in AZ???? What is
even more pathetic than the person who spotted me are the guys who run to
that spot and work me. The last 2 years I've checked the QSO rate jumps and
they occurred  at exactly the same time someone spotted me.
We need to get back to real contesting, you against me, and the better score
wins. Assisted was a bad experiment, it doesn't work, get rid of it.

Lastly you said: ""The key here is to find, expose, and force out those
cheaters who would lessen our enjoyment of our chosen hobby. ""
NO, the key is to remove the temptation, remove the most blatant form of
cheating from contests, DXPacket Cluster. It has no useful purpose, none,
zip, nada, in contesting.


MAL                N7MAL
BULLHEAD CITY, AZ
www.citlink.net/~suzyq/N7mal.htm
www.geocities.com/n7mal

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Robbins K1TTT" <k1ttt at arrl.net>
To: <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Friday, June 13, 2003 10:08 AM
Subject: RE: [CQ-Contest] Packett can cheapen the competitor in all of us
ifwe let it...


"if we let it." Is the applicable phrase.  'Packet', or probably more
correctly, 'dx spotting nets', are nothing new.  Think back, way back,
if you were in a populated area before there was packet there were voice
repeaters being used to pass dx information between multi ops.  Were
there cheaters in those days who listened in and entered as single op?
Why are there rules about using non-amateur means to arrange contacts?
Because there were reports of people phoning up their friends in rare
countries to get multipliers.  Are there ops who have violated power
limits?  Are there ops who have tried to use rare portable prefixes and
caused rules to be rewritten or clarified?

The key here is to find, expose, and force out those cheaters who would
lessen our enjoyment of our chosen hobby.  My tracking of the obvious
packet cheaters is aimed at just one relatively recent revision to the
rules in some contest that prevents operators from soliciting contacts
outside of the contest operating bands/modes or via non-amateur
means(the internet).  Hopefully exposing how easy it can be to track
this type of cheating will convince some of those who may be inclined to
try to cheat this way not to do it.  Unfortunately it is not quite as
easy to expose cheaters who use excess power, or listen during 'off'
time, or rubber clock band changes, or add contacts, or listen on
spotting nets as single ops, or exceeds their license limits, or bends
or breaks any of the other rules.

Obviously the wrtc format is designed to eliminate chances to break
rules and make sure that the competition is head to head, unfortunately
its not possible for world wide contests to put observers in every
competitor's station.  Fortunately there is always at least one person
who knows that they cheated.  Making sure that they know that cheating
by 'self spotting' is not tolerated and will be at least exposed to the
world, and hopefully result in sanctions by the contest sponsors, is one
way of putting pressure on them to stay within the lines.  Making sure
that your neighbor who contests with the big switch engaged and then
enters as low power knows that you know he is cheating is another way.

We must police ourselves, and to do that sometimes is not easy.

David Robbins K1TTT
e-mail: mailto:k1ttt at arrl.net
web: http://www.k1ttt.net
AR-Cluster node: 145.69MHz or telnet://dxc.k1ttt.net



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