[CQ-Contest] Busted Exchanges - how to log them?

[R.S.Hradilek]

We've all been there. After hours of contesting, we come across a 
station that either isn't in the contest, or doesn't know his correct 
exchange. Sometimes it is a needed mult. Here are 4 scenarios:

.	He sends his CQ zone instead of his IARU zone.
.	He sends a serial number instead of a zone.
.	He sends a signal report, with no zone at all.
.	He sends a signal report, name and QTH, etc.

I worked a Norwegian station in the IARU who insisted that he was in 
zone 24. I made him repeat it, repeated it back to him, and logged it 
as 24 - a remote Siberian mult, but he couldn't have been there. His 
CQ zone is 14, so I guess he was sending a serial number and there 
were 23 guys who worked him before I did. He was not signing his 
callsign/mm.

I would think we are supposed to log it they way it's copied (but not 
count the mult). Many would simply log the correct zone (18). Maybe I 
should too. 

It comes down to the logic in the software used by the score 
checkers. They MUST have logic that detects the stations that bust 
their own exchange, so that serial numbers and other bad zone numbers 
are not counted as mults. I would hope they make the correction on 
their end, assuming there are others that log the actual sent 
information. If, however, I am the ony op that doesn't log him as 
zone 18, the log checking software would penalize ME for getting it 
right. Thus, I seek clarification.

I long ago decided that it is OK to log these stations. Back in the 
70's I tuned across a local who was trying to extract an approximate 
equivalent of SS exchange information from a clueless VE8. The 
following weekend at the local ham store I met one of his buddies in 
the DX club, who stated that this guy was the only one in the club 
that got a sweep. "No he didn't", I responded, and I explained. 
Subsequently, word got around that I had "accused" one of their 
members of "cheating", and I was blackballed from that well known DX 
club for 20+ years. I still havn't joined.

Since then, I have noticed that nobody seems to have a problem piling 
up on stations who simply send "5nn" as their exchange. Obviously, 
they are logging the contact, filling in the zone, and counting the 
mult. 

Roy -- AD5Q
Houston