[CQ-Contest] Log checking questions

[Mark Beckwith]

I appreciate your post, MAL, thanks.

My post was pretty much to say that if the sponsors allow unrestricted packet use at all times by all competitors as you propose, I would not be interested in playing that game.  That's all.  I'm pretty sure I'm not alone.

That said, I disagree that contests' sponsors are choosing to do nothing because of a revenue stream, rather that there are only 24 hours in a day and quite correctly they have chosen to fry bigger fish and avoid the headache.  You may recall in the 90s when some far-seeing individuals like yourself proposed that everyone turn in their logs electronically you were met with "it'll never happen."  Such is the way of ham radio contests.  10 years from now, when it's trivial to bust packet cheaters in a way everyone agrees is a no-brainer, this conversation will finally be over and people entering unassisted won't be cheating, and people using packet will be understanding the are on crutches and that some of them can actually run if they will only give it a try.

MAL, you're just ahead of your time, that's all.  Take it from ME, it's frustrating to know all the answers :)

Mark, N5OT


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: N7MAL 
  To: Mark Beckwith ; cq-contest at contesting.com 
  Sent: Thursday, December 15, 2005 11:24 PM
  Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Log checking questions


  Mark right now every contest you enter you are entering against guys using 'crutches', many many guys. Over the years the contest sponsors have had a great many opportunities to 'bust' the cheaters but they won't/don't. N6TJ and I and others have brought this up several times over the past few years and nothing, absolutely nothing, gets done about it. I have cited obvious cheaters from my own logs, during SS, and nothing has changed. As long as the contest sponsors first priority is revenue, from their magazines, cheating will continue. You will get no help from the contest sponsors. Oh they say they aggressively pursue cheating but talk is cheap, actions speak louder than words.
  Several months ago, when this subject came up, I suggested a one(1) contest weekend moratorium on the packet so the scores could be analyzed to determine the impact on packet cheating. You would have thought I had shot someone's dog. I was attacked viciously both publicly and privately. The packet cheaters couldn't go one(1) contest without packet and apparently neither can one packet sysop, K1TTT who publicly attacked me.

  Anyone who knows me knows how strongly I feel against using packet during contests. I wish there were an alternative but after fighting it for so many years there seems to be no solution other than to make it a 'free-for-all'. I will take comfort in knowing every contact in my log I found on my own without any outside help.

  I guess some of us are part of a dying breed, we actually know what a contest means and how to operate in a contest without cheating.


  MAL               N7MAL
  BULLHEAD CITY, AZ
  http://www.ctaz.com/~suzyq/N7mal.htm
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  Don't worry about the world coming to an end today.
  It's already tomorrow in Australia