[CQ-Contest] Contest Cheating

[KI9A at aol.com]

OK, we went thru this a few years ago with the spotting of club members, it 
was boring then, & is boring now.  But, after thinking a bit, here are real 
problems that we need to deal with before we get our underdrawers all bunched up 
about spotting a friend:

Enemy #1:  The unassisted op who has the cluster running in the background. 
Can this be enforced? Not really. It can be exposed however, maybe bringing 
shame on the offender. This is a threat to us who play by the rules, in a big 
way.

enemy #2:  The QRP op running 50 or 100 w, or the low power guy running high 
power, or the high power guy running his 2-hole Henry wide open. What do we do 
about this? If I'm low power, I'll get eaten alive by a cheater running 
higher power, assuming we have the same basic antenna system & locations.

enemy #3: Rubber clocking, especially when you have a contest like NAQP or SS 
that you have to take time off. Listening is operating. Period. No tuning the 
bands for mults while you are "off"

enemy #4: Self spotters. Hats off to K1TTT & his work. But, really, how much 
does this affect the score? I have been unassisted most of my contesting life, 
up until 3 or 4 years ago. I notice VERY little improvement on my scores by 
using packet. Sure, a couple mults here & there, but, I would have worked most 
by old-fashioned tuning. It does however, bring the mult total up quicker!

Take a peek at these & think which hurts us most. Then, take time to think 
about how much it helps a guy if his club spots him numerous times in a contest. 
Probably not too mush, as most who are over-spotted are loud & working 
everyone anyway.  Instead of belly aching about so-and-so spotting his fellow club 
member so-many-times, think about how to stop the "real" cheaters listed above. 
 This crap about packet is getting old, there is no way to regulate it, & we 
may as well make it legal for all classes to use, it isn't going away guys!

73-Chuck KI9A