[CQ-Contest] Lightning strikes N5OT

[James Duffey]

Mal - You wrote:

"I also have personal first hand knowledge of 4 different guys who  
operated from locations other than where they submitted their log  
entry. Again my feeling then and now is SO WHAT. The reason for "SO  
WHAT" is 2 fold. First they worked the stations they submitted a log  
for. Log checking pretty well determines what a guy works."

But log checking doesn't determine if the station was were it told the  
stations it worked it was. So the stations get credit for a multiplier  
they didn't actually work. So if someone was in AZ and told people  
they were in NV, then the stations that worked him got credit for NV,  
but didn't actually work NV. And if that was the only NV station they  
worked, there score is artificially high due to the misrepresentation  
of the station in AZ of his location. By telling people the station is  
in one state when he is actually in another alters the results of  
other entrants. And perhaps even the results of those who did not work  
him by changing people's position in the standings. In some sense it  
brings everyone who worked the station into the fraud.

And if someone needs NV, and spends some time trying to work the  
station that is really is in AZ, but telling people that they are in  
NV, then he has less time to work other stations. He suffers and  
others he doesn't work suffer. It alters the desirability of people to  
work that station. NV is usually more rare than AZ in a contest, so  
that station is more attractive to work.

The "so what" is that sort of behavior alters the dynamics of the  
contest; it can alter the results of the contest, and it affects  
others without them knowing it, some positively, some negatively.

I think that any misrepresentation of a multiplier has an impact far  
beyond that of the station committing the fraud. That impact may not  
be major, but it very likely has an impact on someone other than the  
perpetrator, and that is bad.

If everyone did this, or even a sizable fraction of entrants did this,  
contesting would be a shambles and not have much meaning. I think that  
is a good test to the so what question. If everyone did this, would  
the impact on contesting be positive or negative?

There is some previous documented experience with this specious  
activity, W9WNV, and that ended badly for not only him, but many  
others as well. There is no reason to believe that similar behavior  
today is acceptable.

That is the so what.  - Duffey
--
KK6MC
James Duffey
Cedar Crest NM