[CQ-Contest] Cheating problems and their solutions

[Warren C. Stankiewicz]

Andy (Hi, Andy!) writes:

> Nobody is going to listen to an entire contest.
> However, there are certain logs that raise a red flag.
> Listening to select portions is all you need to do.

Of course, this means you're going to have to find the section you're 
looking for in 48 hours of recorded, but not necessarily time stamped 
material. It will also bring up an entirely new form of post contest 
massaging, adding white noise and QRN to sections of your contest 
performance you may not be proud of. After all, if the cheaters are in for a 
penny, they'll be in for a pound. The problem isn't the cheating, it's the 
cheaters.

> Look how many people were impressed with what CN2R did with his logs.

Yes, indeed, it's a very impressive job, and a lot of work, and everyone 
involved should be congratuated. However, this is one station. CQ WW (for 
example) has close to 40 categories. Multiply that by 5, and we have a lot 
of electrons sitting idly by.

In addition, you won't be able to limit it to just 5--because no one knows 
who the top 5 are going to be in any given category until the contest is 
over. You're really going to have to expect the top 15 or so to record. 
Eventually, you'll want everyone to do it.

It is my contention that the sport of amateur radio contesting has enough 
barriers to entry as it is. The quest and desire for good antennas, radios, 
computers (and contest logging software), not to mention great innovations 
such as SO2R bites only a few new people each year. Instead of concentrating 
on those few bad eggs who linger around the fringes of the top, we need to 
do much more work to bring "the average ham" into our favorite part of this 
hobby, before it dies a slow, painful, ignominous death.

Again, no matter what we do to stop cheating, there will always be some 
social misanthropes who cheat. Yes, they're wrong, and yes, life is not 
fair. But we need to strike a common sense balance between what we do about 
it, and how we act and react to the individuals who perform such acts.

73,

Warren, NF1J/6