[CQ-Contest] ARRL says no to opening logs...

[k3bu at optonline.net]

> 
> I think "busted QSO" is an oxymoron.  I suggest that if correct call
> signs weren't exchanged and logged in real time, then it wasn't a
> valid QSO and after-the-fact notes don't make it valid.
> 73,
> Hank, W6SX


There are situations when correct callsigns WERE exchanged, but sh... errors happens. Pressing wrong key, double key, or ERASE instead of LOG on the other side could remove the "proof". 

Nobody is perfect, statistically there is something like 2 - 4% of errors regardless what you do. Take typing, or any other activities, add to it 47 hours of non-stop operating and the chances are aggravated.

So, while purists say tough luck, you didn't work them because you are not correctly in their log, might not be a truth. You worked them all right, might have a tape recording to prove it, but the goof is on the other side of which you have absolutely no control and not aware of.

This is what some RF impaired could not get and here comes the "reasoning" to "teach" us accurate contest logging by insisting on 3 QSO penalties.
In contesting situation when the other station goofs, or decides to remove "inconvenient" or unsure QSO from the log in order to avoid the "penalty" we end up getting penalized for no fault of our own. 
But everyone is in the same boat, so "that's OK".

I am glad I grew out of DXing, but still "suffering" from the contest bug and subject to teaching lessons :-)

73 anyway

Yuri Blanarovich, K3BU, VE3BMV