[CQ-Contest] Driving at 4AM

[David Kopacz]

Mike,

Let's examine your statements.

"So far I have yet to hear one compelling argument why logs should not
be open. Because I don't like it doesn't fly in my book."

Quite simply, they are MY logs. The information contained within them
shows when I make band changes, how often they are made and at what
times they are made is MY strategy. This information is important to
winning a contest. No one disputes that. This information is quite
easily reviewed with little effort by plugging MY LOG into a contest
program and exporting the summaries.

In the 2007 ARRL SSB International DX contest, one of my guests brought
a band summary chart for PJ2T. I was curious how he obtained the
information and why he brought it, but considering this individual, I
simply assumed he knew Geoff and had asked for it. Since I wasn't aware
of the open logs issue, I had no idea he simply downloaded it from "the
public log".

During the entire contest, he repeatedly referred to it checking to see
if we were "on target" with Q rates per band. I also believe the night
crew used it to determine when to make band changes. At all times during
the contest, we were ahead of the PJ2T 2006 rates according to this
operator. Interestingly, we still finished 2nd, right behind PJ2T as
they also exceeded their previous years score. Nevertheless, without
that information, we had no idea where we should have been with regards
to rates and rates by band.

Was it fair that we had this information? In my opinion, it wasn't. For
me, it felt like cheating. Why should my team benefit from the hard work
and skill gained by the repeatedly successful PJ2T team?

Do you think these next statements by you are compelling arguments why
MY logs should be open to you?

"Since it is required by the sponsor it really doesn't matter. I suspect
there are good reasons for doing this."

It gets even weirder here...

"Not much point in hiding the strategy if your log is not considered for
the final results."

You make my point in that statement. CQ is deciding that no one is
permitted to "hide their strategy". If you hide it, you can't use it to
win. If you want to win, you must show the world how you won. This fits
right in with this new era of entitlement we live in. Everyone thinks
they have a right to everything just because. People seem to think they
don't have to "earn" anything any longer.

Then you say "I will trust the sponsor and the log checkers just as I
have since I became licensed."

If that's the case, there is no need to open logs. Send them to the
sponsor, let them adjudicate them and simply trust they adjudicated the
contest fairly.

If that's not the case, then this all comes down to one question: Do we
trust the contest committee and/or the adjudication process.

It seems many do not!

David ~ KY1V