[CQ-Contest] The irony of Operating Time [was: Logging Time [was: Contesting Time Calculation]]

[Ed K1EP]

At 1/6/2006 04:11 PM, Kenneth E. Harker wrote:


>We've also had discussions on this reflector before about the ethics 
>of listening to the bands in the hour before a contest officially
>starts and building up a bandmap.  It's obviously difficult for 
>contest sponsors to regulate behavior outside of the official time
>period for the contest, but I share the opinion of many others that
>this is an unethical, unsportsmanlike practice.

So to make the analogy to car racing, practice laps in the days leading to the race and warmup laps prior to the start are unsportsman?   In the Tour de France, don't the cyclists take a ride in the morning?  Don't they drive the course before riding it that day?  Well, maybe only the real competitive ones.   Don't baseball players take batting practice and fielding practice before a game?  Is that unethical?  I don't really see too much wrong in warming up the bands before a contest.   You can't regulate what happens before a contest.  How far before a contest do you have to go?  What if I were operating two contests that day?  How do I erase my band and propagation knowledge from the first one before starting the second?  Next thing you know, there will be little jars that we will have to fill...