[CQ-Contest] Cheating and bad journalism

[Mark Luhrman]

Well I figure that I would give my 2cents which is only my opinion, and we all 
have these. First about NS3T. I have know Jamie since college. He came and 
operated  ARRL DX Phone with me back in 1985 or so. He was also our Speaker for 
the Florida Contest Group dinner the night before the Orlando hamfest. He 
brought a lot of good info to the dinner. I learned quite a bit. He started the 
Radiosport.net as he saw an opportunity that he felt was needed in the contest 
community. He realized there was nowhere to learn about info on contesting and 
since so many hams use the internet now, that this site could serve a useful 
purpose. The thing is that each and everyone of us has made mistakes, sometimes 
have passed along the wrong info to others, even though we were sometimes 
unaware that we we wrong. And yes sometimes we hurt other peoples feelings. I 
know that I probably would be upset if my call was associated with  the cheaters 
of the contest world. So if apologies have been made, and a mistake was done 
without any intentional harm, which I think was done, then lets move on. Now as 
to the cheating aspect. On several occassions while I was using packet in the 
assisted category, I saw hams sometimes jump on these spots within 2 mins. after 
I spotted the stations. And then later claim unassisted. And some of these guys 
did it more then just one time. So I decided to email one person individually 
and told him that I just could not understand how his multiplier total was as 
good as mine and sometimes better. He got very offensive with me. On his second 
email he told me that the way he found out about these spots that he was using 
the bandscope on his ICOM 76 Pro!  I also notified the president of the contest 
club he was in. I was told that in several of the past contests that he had been 
placed in other categories. So what I am getting around to is that some of us 
know people are cheating. I also have call up the ARRL Contest Desk and told 
about some that I also felt were using packet. I pretty much got a cold 
shoulder. They did say they would look into the matter, but after the way the 
guy responded to me, I doubt if anyting was ever done. It is very hard to 
actually prove that someone is cheating. And accusing someone of doing so 
without actual proof  is useless. In this country a person is innocent until 
proven guilty, and sometimes we can not and they get away with it. I do not like 
what is going on, but I found it does very little good to rat on someone, not 
much ever comes out positive. And most of the time nothing gets done about it. A 
good example is our congress!!!!