[CQ-Contest] What should I do?

[David Pruett]

Randy,

I had this happen several years ago.  I had a guest op at my station for SS 
CW and he noticed that one of his regional competitors was pulling away 
from him, despite the fact that said competitor was working people at only 
20 WPM (which seemed rather odd).

During one of my guest ops off time, I sat down at the radio and tuned 
around.  In this case, being an early adopter of SO2R allowed me to find 
the competitor in question on both 40 CW and 80 CW simultaneously 
CQing.  The CW was not synchronized (i.e., one band was not sending what 
the other band was sending) so it wasn't a spur or parallel keying.  I 
monitored long enough to hear the 40 CW signal work somebody while 
continuing to CQ on 80 CW, and vice versa.

After the contest I sent an e-mail to the station saying something to the 
effect of "Key OM, I noted your station putting out a signal on two bands 
at once (and noting the time/QRG).  You might want to check this"  I never 
got a reply, but the station never sent their log in that year either 
(despite claiming a big total on the 3830 reflector).

I've heard this situation far too many times during phone SS. As a regular 
SS multi-op competitor who ALWAYS runs an interlock box (on both CW and 
SSB) to ensure compliance with the letter of the rules, it is really 
irritating.  Being legal is not all that hard - whether through ignorance 
or laziness, there is no excuse.  And let there be no doubt - it *IS* a big 
advantage in SS to CQ on multiple bands without restraint.

I guess if it were me, I'd send a note to the station politely noting your 
observations and what the rule says.  Failing that, I would send a note to 
ARRL HQ with the details of your observation.  With the time/freq/QSOnr for 
the QSOs in question, the contest administrators can look at the submitted 
log and decide what action to take.

73,

Dave/K8CC

At 10:40 PM 12/22/2005, Randy Thompson wrote:
> >From the ARRL Sweepstakes rules:
>
>3.2. Multioperator:
>3.2.1. Multi-Single only:
>3.2.1.1. Only 1 transmitted signal is permitted at any time.
>
>
>During the SS Phone contest, I called a station and he proceeded to give me
>the exchange.  As he was talking, I can hear another voice in the background
>also saying an exchange.  I notice that both of them give the same number.
>Then just before the op turns it over to me, he stops and corrects the
>serial number to one higher.  It's pretty obvious to me that they are
>transmitting the exchange on two bands at the same time.
>
>What is the process that one should follow to report something like this?
>Do I write the station owner?  Do I write to the contest sponsor?  I don't
>have this recorded. Why should the contest sponsor believe me?  What should
>the sponsor do with my report?
>
>So many questions.
>
>Randy, K5ZD
>
>
>PS - For those who ask, I will only say it is a high scoring multi-op in the
>Ohio section.  They know who they are.
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