[CQ-Contest] Driving at 4AM

[John Brosnahan -- W0UN]

 >> So there is a belief by a few that it is imperative to wait until the
 >> last minute before the deadline before revealing your score in order
 >> to eliminate the opportunity for SOMEONE ELSE to cheat. So it is a
 >> measure of SECURITY to not reveal your score on 3830, or to send in
 >> your log early lest the reviewers accidently let your numbers be
 >> known to the competition.


After posting the (excerpt) above I received a note (below) by private email
confirming that this is a serious consideration in Europe -- sent to me
by a European operator who wishes to remain anonymous.  With his
permission I excerpted the following sections of his note because I think
it is important to see that there is a win-at-all-costs attitude among SOME
operators and it appears be more common in Europe than in the US -- based
on his (entire) note and my own experiences.

--John  W0UN


 > What you describe above is something that is rife in Europe and the
 > contest sponsors need to start DQing more people.  If you look closely
 > at 3830 posts for major contests you will notice that a lot of the top
 > finishers from Europe do NOT post to 3830 (or at least not before the
 > log submission deadline) and they do that for a very good reason, which
 > is precisely the one you describe above.

 > Europe is a very difficult place to contest from, be it from QRM from
 > 10kW transmitters, deliberate QRM from 'helpers' to your competition,
 > log padding after finding out the competitions score, changing category
 > to an 'easier' one after finding out on 3830 that someone has beaten you
 > etc.  The only way you can even attempt to compete in that environment
 > is to hold your cards close to your chest and reveal nothing until the
 > final scores are published.