[CQ-Contest] Did I cheat in NAQP CW?

[Robert Brandon]

1.  IMHO, the callsign history feature -- assuming you use only the data you
have accumulated -- is okay. I don't see that as very different from going
to Dayton every year and getting to know a lot of people.  But you use it at
your own risk when folks do something like use "Ken" in memoriam or operate
from a different state.

Using the callbook is different.  If everybody used it, no one would copy
exchanges and that's an important part of the game.  

2.  The purest of the purists would say make no changes to your log once the
event is over, but a much bigger majority say it's okay to check your log
before you send it in.  (Remember post contest duping?)  Just use your own
notes.  So if the software makes it easier as you log subsequent Qs, I'd say
that's okay.  But I think the post contest log checkers go a bit too far.  

3.  All of us get unsolicited info once in a while.  Just don't solicit it.


Robert K5PI

-----Original Message-----
From: cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Art Boyars
Sent: Sunday, January 10, 2010 9:55 AM
To: cq-contest at contesting.com
Subject: [CQ-Contest] Did I cheat in NAQP CW?

 #1 is sort-of serious.  #2 is in the angels-on-the-head-of-a-pin
category. #3 is mostly tongue sort-of in cheek.

 1.  If it's OK to use "call history" files, is it OK to look up states in
the (on-line) callbook.  Why should one list of historical data be OK, and
the other not?  (I did NOT look up anybody's state or name in the 'Test.)

2.  I worked a guy whose state I know.  And he did indeed send that state
(to me AND to the guy who beat me out on the first call).  When I worked him
on the second band, I knew his state would be a mult.  When I typed in his
call the logging software filled in the report for me, but did not indicate
it was a new mult.  Hmmm?  Oh!  It says "MD"  I must have entered his state
as MD the first time.  I guess I was listening to my report being sent while
I typed in his report, and unconsciously typed in my own state.  No
problem.  I rolled back in the log and fixed his state in the first QSO, and
continued working the 'Test.

Now, my own opinion is that anything I fix DURING the contest is OK -- but I
had been considering errors that I recognized right away.  In this case, I
would not have noticed the error except for the fill-in feature of the
logging software.

3.  Late in the 'Test I made a desperate jump to 40M (which was already
pretty dead by the time I started the 'Test).  I heard somebody tuning up,
and a well-know station in GA called CQ NA.  I listened for a moment, and
heard him get no answers.  So I called him by name, and said "You are vy
loud but nobody is here.  GL"

Did I make him multi-op?  (He did keep calling CQ.)  Should we never give
ANY info that might help the other guy, including "VY LOUD" or (as my buddy
N6XI once said to me) "P**S WEAK".  BTW, I reserve the right to tell N3AM he
is very loud.  I think that from the top of his tower John can see my
antenna ...if he looks down.

73, Art K3KU
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