[CQ-Contest] Log checking questions

[Ed K1EP]

At 12/19/2005 06:56 AM, Frank Hunt wrote:
>IMO if you are handing out serial numbers then, yes you are 
>participating in the contest. 
>If you don't send a log in then you are 
>a participant who didn't send a log in. If you purposely or 
>accidentally broke the rules, and that's why you didn't submit your 
>log, you still should send it as a check log, that way you will help 
>out the log-checkers.


If I am in a contest that requires serial numbers (or grids, or first names) and if I work someone, casual or not, I have to put something in the log.   I can't just make something up.  If I work a casual operator and he also works 5 people in the contest, then today's sophisticated log checking programs will create that log whether or not he submits one.  So, the fact that a casual op giving out a Q in a contest does send a serial number or grid or name, doesn't make him a participant.  Take the opposite tact.  How can there be any casual participants?  What you are saying is that either you participate in the contest (and thus follow all the rules) or you do not make contact with anyone in a contest.  Once you make a contact with a contester, you must figure out what contest it is, what log format is required, where to send the log, what the rules are, etc.  That would severely limit the fun in a contest, as has been pointed out several times before.  Casual ops are casual, they hand out Qs (which for the person receiving the Q necessitate the transfer of some particular information) but don't submit logs.  If I am mobile and make a few Qs in some state QSO party or some small DX contest, I am not going to hand in a log.  I won't even have a log, as I am not legally required to keep one, nor will I while I am driving.  You can't require this for the casual op, he (or she) just won't be casual anymore...he or she won't be there anymore.