[CQ-Contest] Log checking anomalies

[David Pruett]

K9TM and I check the logs for the ARRL 160M and 10M contests, and one of 
the checks we do on all the log are "errors caused".  That is, how many 
errors did other people get hit with because of the log in question.

If a log has a high "errors caused" percentage (for example, 100 QSOs 
checked with 90 errors) then we know something is wrong.  If every 
checked QSO caused a NIL at the other end, then it's highly likely the 
entrant's callsign is probably wrong.  If the exchanged location is 
always bad, then the entrant's location is probably wrong.  This is when 
the detective work starts, e-mails to the entrant, etc.

Every year we see a number of logs where the callsign and/or state are 
not correct.  Often, it appears that the entrant took their laptop to 
another station where the default name/state are incorrect.  This is 
like me turning in a log indicating I was K8CC in MI when I was K8MAD in OH.

Every contester owes it to his fellow participants to ensure their log 
is as accurate as possible.  Sometimes, detecting log errors is a 
difficult challenge.  In our logchecking efforts, we hold as our #1 
premise that no log should be wrongly penalized, and we do our best to 
catch all the errors.  But help out the logcheckers by double-checking 
your log is accurate within your control.

73,

Dave/K8CC



Rich K2WR wrote:
> Yuri makes some good points regarding "UN7MMMM" and "JJJ2CJB".  Our AH6XX log lost two QSO's with JJ2CJB, and I waited to see what would get stirred up since it seemed likely that this would affect a lot of people.  In this case, it doesn't affect our standing (and pales in comparison with the two multipliers we did legitimately lose).  However, I seem to recall that we've been told by the Contest Committee that score reductions are not made by the robot without human intervention, and it appears that the system did not operate faultlessly in this case.  If hundreds of logs contained the same "error", and a log indicates that the submitter busted his own callsign, then it would seem reasonable for a human log checker to conclude that JJ2CJB probably didn't send JJJ2CJB.  I'm not exactly going to stand on my head until I turn blue, but it seems to me that the Contest Committee should revisit this one.
>
> Rich
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