[CQ-Contest] Inequity of Zone Checking

[RT Clay]

I am curious how zone checking is done for the IARU contest- there qso's with the "incorrect" zone ARE removed from you log. Often casual contest participants don't know their IARU zone or send their CQ zone instead. I suspect these same stations also rarely send in their logs. And there are more IARU zones than CQ zones.

Suppose a W4 station who appears to be located on the west coast USA calls me and sends his zone as "3". Should I

a) log what was sent
b) log "6" because the station is west coast
c) log "8" because ARRL log checking might assume W4 is east coast if he doesn't send in a log
d) spend 10 minutes trying to explain the difference between IARU and CQ zones at 5 WPM cw?

:)


Tor
N4OGW

--- On Wed, 11/30/11, W0MU Mike Fatchett <w0mu at w0mu.com> wrote:

> From: W0MU Mike Fatchett <w0mu at w0mu.com>
> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Inequity of Zone Checking
> To: cq-contest at contesting.com
> Date: Wednesday, November 30, 2011, 3:04 PM
> What the station sends does not
> determine the zone he is in.  So If I 
> sent zone 9 from J6M what zone would the stations that
> worked me get 
> credit for.
> 
> The object is to work the zones and countries.  You
> should send your 
> zone as many people may not know your zone.  This has
> roots far back 
> into the days of logging prior to computers.  It has
> become moot with 
> computer logging.  I agree that we should copy what is
> being sent but 
> some common sense needs to be applied here just like in
> driving a car.
> 
>