[CQ-Contest] IARU 2009 and 2010 and ????

[Tom Haavisto]

There are numerous problems here.

I am a longtime reader and supporter of a website called Groklaw,
which has been following the antics of a company called SCO.  There is
a lot of legal stuff there, but over and over, one point is hammered
home: view the evidence for yourself, and then you can make up your
own mind.  Never mind that someone else is telling you what the facts
are.  View the evidence for yourself, and then make up your own mind.

First off, ONLY logs from the CQWW are made public after the contest.
Despite that, there has been a report based on a log submitted by
DA0HQ.  Can *I* judge the evidence for myself?  No.  I cannot see the
log from DA0HQ, the logs submitted by the stations they worked, or the
logs of any of the other HQ stations.  I have to take someone else's
word that what is in the report is accurate and unbiased.  And, we
only get to hear one side of the story.  They story they want to tell,
and have us all believe.  Should DARC also do up a (public) report,
and then what?  Who do we believe, and will it make things better?

I very much want to believe that everyone acted honourably, and based
on a lack of (public) evidence, that is all any of us have to go on.
Despite that, some are ready to accept any story they hear of "what
the facts are", and act accordingly.

Please stop and think:  Are YOU acting honourably?  Will YOUR actions
make the IARU contest a better contest in the future, or will you
carry a grudge (forever), claim that justice was not well served, and
hang everyone out to dry (including the judges)?

For me, the bottom line looks like this:  The situation is a mess, and
declaring a winner would NOT settle the controversy.  Rather, it would
just add fuel to the fire.  In any contest, there is a disclaimer
along the lines of "The decision of the contest committee is FINAL".
They have spoken, and yet the controversy continues (or it just got
started).

Clearly, there is no way out of this mess.  Declare a winner, and
someone goes away unhappy.  Such is life.

My understanding is that the ARRL is looking for input on how to make
things better going forward.  What is done, is done.  We cannot change
the past.  Replaying the moment will not change the outcome.  Carrying
a grudge forward will not make things better.  All anyone can ask is
that everyone play according to the rules of the game, act with honour
and respect for our fellow hams.

Hope to see you in the next contest!

Tom - VE3CX





On Wed, Jun 9, 2010 at 6:54 PM, Ricardo Navarrete
<ricardoea4zk at gmail.com> wrote:
> It's embarrasing how ARRL answered that way to a demand of a HQ, I don't
> know why, but it is clear that DL HQ made some tricks logging callsings ...
> But this is the way they do things, I'm of course going retire my
> subscription from ARRL.....