[CQ-Contest] Recording?

[Eric Rosenberg]

This discussion is at times, funny, naive, ridiculous and sad.

Accept the violations and violators and everyone loses.  Not just this 
hobby, but society as a whole.  In 1938, it was called appeasement (" 
Hobbesian in its insistence upon swallowing the bad in order to preserve 
some remnant of the good, pessimistic in its belief that Nazism was 
there to stay and, however horrible it might be, should be accepted as a 
way of life with which Britain ought to deal." Martin Gilbert, /The 
Roots of Appeasement/, 1968) and the concept is, I see, still alive and 
well.

The idea of stations recording contests and making that part of a 
submission requirement makes sense to me.

The physical recording is very, very simple to accomplish, either with 
internal recorders (i.e., your computer's soundcard writing to your hard 
disk by way of your logging or separate recording software) or with an 
external recorder.  Those that complain at the extra cost (<$100) and 
extra gear to carry with them are, I suspect, the same folks who will 
spend $$$$$ on towers, antennas and station equipment, but not on 
contesting or any other software, even though none of it costs more than 
$100, and will fly to an exotic location with lots of gear... and their 
iPod, which is no larger than the average MP3 recorder/player.

Those trivial issues notwithstanding, the purpose of the recording is to 
be a check-log, not unlike a dupe sheet from the pre-computer days.  
They would only be needed when the conventional log checking process 
tagged a log as being suspect -- however that is done and by whatever 
criteria the sponsor establishes. The purpose is not to burden the log 
checker with the additional task of reviewing an audio log of each 
participant. It's analogous to looking at the canceled check/receipt 
when an unaccounted-for debit or payment request comes in that you 
_know_ you had taken care of! 

The only change I would make in W4PA's excellent proposal is that the 
contest sponsor determine the criteria (e.g., # of QSO's, claimed score, 
etc.) that would require a recording. While there's no harm in making a 
recording I'll never have to submit,  there be lots of harm if I don't 
have a recording I am required to submit.

Those determined to win at any cost will, in fact, doctor their logs and 
recordings.  On the other hand, those who may be tempted to violate the 
rules will know that their attempts will likely be uncovered.  Society 
should not condone their actions.

In the end, it appears that very few on this reflector are interested in 
changing the status quo.  Instead, it seems that this whining, along 
with its "I know who the cheaters are but won't say" element, will 
continue from year to year.

Sad...

Eric W3DQ
Washington, DC