[CQ-Contest] Cheating

[Zack Widup]

I guess you can take two routes - you can constantly work on improving
your station and your skills to get better and better and eventually
score highly honestly, or you can cheat.

I have been entering VHF+ contests for many years in the Single-Op
(QRP) Portable class. I have never cheated. It has been years of
constant changes to see if they improved things. Some of the changes
did lead to improvements and some didn't. I still have some changes in
mind to hopefully add more improvement. I also feel I got better as an
operator as the years went on. I now often place within the top 5 in
that category in contests. A lot of work went behind that.

The same would go for HF contests. I guess it says a lot about the
character of a person if they are willing to cheat to accomplish an
end. And it doesn't guarantee it will accomplish that end.

73, Zack W9SZ


On 7/18/12, kr2q at optimum.net <kr2q at optimum.net> wrote:
> Well, in every aspect of life, there have been, are, and always will be
> cheaters.
>
> Two big elements (historically) that motivate cheating are (a) others do it
> so I need to
> cheat as well in order to maintain a level playing field (HA!) and (b) What
> is the risk of getting
> caught?
>
> For ham radio events, there is a subset of (b)....if I get caught, will the
> contest sponsor
> actually take any action?
>
> As we all know, there are some contests where "nobody ever gets DQed."
> Maybe one of "those"
> has very recently changed for a single entrant.  A move in the right
> direction.
>
> Many decades ago (and definitely NOT the case today or even recently), the
> WPX contest was
> simply a joke in terms of log checking. The claimed score always = final
> score.  At the time,
> when questioned about the lack of checking, the reply was, "This isn't that
> kind of contest."
> Really?  Clearly, that wrong attitude was fixed ages ago now.
>
> So in consideration of "I wish they would do the right thing," that really
> depends in great
> part on the sponsor taking action.
>
> Also, I get your point, but I would say that 99.9% honesty is a bit
> optimistic.  In a contest
> with, say, 7000 log entries, do you really think there are only 7 guys
> breaking the rules?  Or
> maybe you distinguish between "breaking the rules" and intentional
> "cheating."
>
> Finally, at least for me, a big part of honesty and integrity and peer
> pressure.  I don't know
> why you have not listed the callsign of this station.  I think it would do
> tremendous good.
> Hopefully, if they don't "fall on their sword," after your admonition, you
> will then feel
> compelled to reveal their identify.  I'm sure someone has an SDR recording
> of the contest
> that would clearly demonstrate two signals at once.
>
> Thanks for bringing this to light!  We need more of the same from others.
>
> de Doug KR2Q
>
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