[CQ-Contest] How To Deal with Cheaters....

[Robert Chudek]

Dallas - W3PP said, in part:  "I don't have a dog in this fight,..."

Well I do have a dog in this fight. He's a Chihuahua and is pretty much down and out of action in the opening seconds of competition...

This cheating discussion really is dancing around the basic human EMOTION of "fairness". It takes a pretty big set of 'nads to publicly call another person out for wrong-doing. For example, the woman in front of you at the store hands the clerk $10 for an item and you see the teller giving back change for a twenty. The "winner" begins to head for the door. What do you do? Grab the store intercom and shout "Would the woman who just cheated this store out of ten bucks return to the checkout lane for adjudication."?

Someone said "I could be wrong". Yes, it's the uncertainty of a situation that keeps most people quiet. (Geez, maybe it WAS a twenty she gave the teller...)

Once you move into the emotional aspect, there's no telling what risk you inherit. As an extreme example, the kid gets fired from McDonalds, looses his girlfriend, and he goes on a shooting rampage. I haven't heard about any gun play at hamfests, but when the accuser and accused eventually cross paths, the adrenaline will certainly start to flow. Now you're in the territory of how each individual will react to the situation and their emotional stake in the competition.

Jeff - K1ZM / VY2ZM said he observed packet spot chasing. I probably missed it in his message, but I didn't see how he determined whether the offender entered the log as SO or SO(A). Even if SO was posted to 3830, this doesn't guarantee the same classification sent to the contest sponsor. I'll admit I have made this mistake myself... after seeing my posting on 3830 I discovered I submitted the wrong class and needed to send an updated log to the contest robot. My "corrected" entry never made it into the 3830 listings.

In any case, it's an interesting thread to be reading. As I said, my dog isn't going to be a top ten contender, so my emotional commitment doesn't compare to the top performers. But I believe real cheating should be revealed and lead to a DQ. That's fair.

73 de Bob - K0RC in MN