[CQ-Contest] My RED CARD - IT9GSF
fabio.grisafi at libero.it
fabio.grisafi at libero.it
Sat Apr 6 04:06:06 EDT 2013
This is a message I have sent to WRTC Director explaining the Red Card. I send this email to all the community because I wish everybody understands that I am not a cheater.
John 8:7: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."
Best regards,Fabio - IT9GSF.
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Dear President, Mr. Doug Grant, K1DG,
I wish to ask your presence in an affair that is involving me, and my possible partecipation to the coming WRTC 2014 event.
As you probably know, the battle to win a TL qualifiction in Europe, expecially #EU2, was very hard. Most of the partecipants went to other countries (D4, CN, EA8, E7) to get points in the qualifying events.
I partecipated most of the events from my personal station near Palermo, Sicily, up on a little mountain almost 1000 meters abv sea (IU9T, II9T).During some qualifyng events I even gave permition to use my station to other operators, as to the late Rytis LY4U that was a past WRTC partecipant and judge.
Rytis partecipated the CW ARRL International DX Contest in 2011 as SOp from my station and he was 5th in EU and second in #EU2 just behind big station/operator DL6FBL (DR1A). It was a big pleasure to let him operate my station and to help him with food and beverage (the only help I gave during contest. He operated full time with few hours of sleep only).
Rytis was a good friend of mine and I learned many things abt operating with his example. We partecipated some contests togheter and enjoyed some vacations.I know he is looking at me from the sky while I write this email.
After some partecipations from II9T/IU9T (my station), with some old sicilian friends (one of them is Antonello, IT9EQO) and some enthusiast new comers (eg Carmelo, IT9AUG), we decided to build a new contest station (II9P) in Ragusa (abt 300 km from my QTH in the other side of Sicily, near their home).
It was a big effort! During summer 2011 I drove to Ragusa 20 times (with abt 12.000 Km of driving in hard roads between mountains). On October 2011 the antennas were not yet ready and the station was not ready as well. Anyway we decided to try to partecipate the CQWW SSB with some foreign friends. First attempt was a M2 partecipation in CQWW SSB 2011. Operators that went to Sicily in that occasion were Oleg YL3DW, Sam LY5W, Kaspars YL1ZF, and Dima RA9CO.
Unfortunately the station didn't work as we were thinking and we stopped the operations on the first day of the contest. What a pity! First, I was thinking the effort of the foreign operators that flew to Sicily and that didn't go to other big stations/QTHs just to help us to make a dream real. Second, it was an other partecipation for a qualifying event for the WRTC gone in the wind.
I was discouraged and I was thinking to go back my home and partecipate again as Single Op from there. But my friends in Sicily asked me help again and I was again with them.
During the CW Contest, that year, I operated the II9P station as SOp 20 meters with my call sign (II9T) and it was a new country record (even if propagation was not the best for 20 meters with higher bands widely open). Then, I operated my station for SOp in some contests and was first place Italy in 2012 ARRL INT CW and 4th in EU just over S50A, Tine, 5th place. (In memory of Rytis that operated the year before and that passed away, RIP!).
Friends were calling and help arrived.
The station in Ragusa (II9P) was growing and some newcomers operated that station in CQ WPX SSB in 2012 as M2. I beated them as SingleOp from II9T with only 36 hours of operating time, HI! But it was a big occasion to undestand differences and problems with that QTH. They needed filters, different towers/antennas, different radios.
Then, after some tests, we decided to partecipate the CQWW SSB Contest 2012 from the new station as M/S, the most difficult category (now I know!).
With five operating desks (and two interlocked radios in some of them) we tried to alternate bands between RUN and MULT stations. Interlocks between operating desks didn't work. We used two lamps with different colours saying to all of the operators: "If you have the RED LAMP you can operate as RUNNER, if you have the BLUE LAMP you can operate as MULT STATION and work multipliers only".
Most of the time it worked, but I was very unhappy when I saw some operators working mults on 20 meters while the BLUE LAMP was on the 80 meters operating desk!The same, when I saw some callsigns left in the entry window of the log without the enter key pressed. Then I asked the operators to pay attention but it was very difficult sometimes. Now I know that a phisical interlock is a must in a MS station with different operating desks because, if operators are not few, maybe somebody had not understood exatly what to do.
Anyway my attempt to make some friends happy and to help somebody to build a new station and to introduce some new operators to the world of contesting was done!
After the contest, with the new rule of five days of dead line, I tried to send the log.
First I was thinking to send the log with those QSO made against the 10 minute rule marked X-QSO: in the cabrillo.
I did it, but I didn't rename the cabrillo file!
After some nights (I am a journalist at the italian national TV and they were days of full work) I re-imported the cabrillo file into WinTest (the software we use) to check if the log was complaint with the rules and the response was OK.
Unfortunately, I didn't send immediately the cabrillo file that I imported in WT but, again, I asked WinTest to make the cabrillo file!
Then I saw that in the new cabrillo all the QSOs marked X-QSO: were not present. I then asked the WinTest forum why this happened and the answer was that WinTest doesn't take into account X-QSO:s! (You can see my requests in the WT Archive).
Very Bad! It was the day of the dead line. I then did the bad thing; I changed some times in some QSOs (the QSO I was thinking were not so bad mistakes) and marked some QSOs as X-QSO: to not give the other station a BAD QSO.
I now know this thing was enough to disqualify me, and all the members of the team, from the CQWW SSB 2012. I know it is a very bad thing. But the Director of CQWW, Randy, Vice-President of the WRTC Board of Directors, that reads this email in CC, answered that we surpassed the number of 18 time changes that was considered the limit.
Well, I want to note that 18 time changes in 1000 QSOs are 1,8% and in 5000 QSOs are 0,036%. We have make 6002 QSOs in that contest and 18 QSOs are 0,0029%.
Randy sent to me an email with the list of the QSOs with time changes. This is the list:
>Date Call Call You His Diff
>10/27/2012 II9P ED1R 0331 0333 2 orig log 0333
>10/27/2012 II9P P40L 0341 0337 -4 orig log 0338 -3
>10/27/2012 II9P TO9R 0341 0338 -3 orig log 0339 -2
>10/27/2012 II9P TK9R 0351 0348 -3 orig log 0348
>10/27/2012 II9P 3V8BB 0351 0348 -3 orig log 0348
>10/27/2012 II9P VP2MDG 0401 0359 -2 orig log 0359
>10/27/2012 II9P EE6E 0458 0456 -2 orig log 0458 we were runner on 80 (Ok)This QSO time was not modified.
>10/27/2012 II9P TO9R 0536 0534 -2 orig log 0536 WE were CQing(ok) This QSO time was not modified.>10/27/2012 II9P SN6Z 0656 0658 2 orig log 0656 (varied by him .. Any SDR?) This QSO time was not modified.>10/27/2012 II9P JW7QIA 0854 0852 -2 orig log 0854 This QSO time was not modified.>10/27/2012 II9P VE2DXY 1244 1235 -9 orig log 1244 This QSO time was not modified. after the contest, maybe some operator did not press the enter key immediately after the QSO and pressed the enter key at the start of the new 10 minute window.>10/27/2012 II9P YV4MP 1653 1655 2 orig log 1655
>10/27/2012 II9P TI5N 1654 1656 2 orig log 1656
>10/27/2012 II9P ZP6DYA 1716 1719 3 orig log 1719
>10/27/2012 II9P V47JA 1726 1730 4 orig log 1730
>10/27/2012 II9P EK3GM 1736 1730 -6 orig log 1730
>10/27/2012 II9P 4L9QQ 1736 1734 -2 orig log 1734
>10/28/2012 II9P UA0IBX 0058 0056 -2 orig log 0057 This should be a -1 and so not counted >10/28/2012 II9P ED8W 0223 0221 -2 orig log 0223 This QSO time was not modified.>10/28/2012 II9P 6Y9X 0256 0254 -2 orig log 0256 This QSO time was not modified.>10/28/2012 II9P VR2XMT 0630 0627 -3 orig log 0627
>10/28/2012 II9P DU1AV 0639 0648 9 orig log 0648 NINE MINUTES "RUBBER CLOCKING"!!! I Didn't remember that!>10/28/2012 II9P 3V8BB 0640 0634 -6 orig log 0634
> orig log means "original log be4 rubber clocking".
So, these are 23 QSOs and the really modified QSOs are almost 15 QSOs. So they are less of 18 QSOs and even if considered 23, they are 0,003% of the QSOs in a log of 6202 QSOs.
I immediately admitted the "Rubber clocking" when I received the official mail by Randy, K5ZD.
The problem is that I did this bad practice to remain in the M/S category and not to surpass other stations. In fact our position in the score was 23rd in the MS class (declared scores) with those QSOs and without those QSOs.
The rules say, at IV B1 , that "Logs found in violation of the 10-minute rule may be reclassified as M2".
I have asked the CQWW CC, in person of his Director, Randy, K5ZD, to re-consider the RED CARD and change it to a YELLOW CARD because of some circumstances:
1) It is not right that foreign and new-comer operators of II9P pay for a mistake made personally by me. (Operators are: I4AVG, I4VEQ, IT9AUG, IT9CHU, IT9CJC, IT9EQO, IT9PKO, IV3YYK, ON4LG, S52RU).
2) A YELLOW CARD is objectively enough because in every sport - or game - a RED CARD is given only when you do something so bad and so strong that you are making the other competing team not able to win. Even in that scenario, a red card is committed only to the player that do the penalty. Not to the full team.
3) Some components of the CQWW Contest Committee, in Europe, were informing other operators that wanted to join us that we will be disqualified, months before the official mail by the CQWW Contest Director. These rumors made personally by contest committee members are not sportsmanlike. This is a clear proof that there was a prejudice by some CQWW CC members that were competirors with us. These CQWW CC members are judges in CQWW and are partecipants in CQWW and in WRTC too!
4) Two operators only were disqualified at the end of the games for WRTC in #EU2 and these two operators are IZ3EYZ (the best contest operator/engineer in Italy - He doesn't need to go to D4, EA8, CN8 to win) and IT9GSF.
5) If we want to be really honest all of the operators in Italy (and in Morocco!) should be disqualified. In fact, power limit in Italy is 500W (out) and in Morocco is 50W(out)/ 250W (input at the station). I use 800 W at II9P with two Motorola MOSFET amplifiers (MICOM). At II9P we are reducing power and improving antenna systems. We look at NQ4I! We use LP-100 Wattmeters and we will record our power in PCs. Other operators - in Morocco for example - improved their power to 5KW and 10KW and some even to the 20KW level!
So, if we want to be honest ... why to disqualify WITH A RED CARD a new team that had problems in software and interlocks and that adjusted times to remain in the M/S category at one of the twenthyeth positions in the scores? Why not giving other teams/pertecipants a CARD for their objective high power?
- High power (not legal) is a way to win ... making the other honest partecipant unable to win (so a red card is a right penalty).
- Time changes (not done to surpass others) is not a way to win ... and so a yellow card have been the right penalty.
So, I wrote to Randy that it is up to him! As I have said before, you are in the country of Thomas Jefferson and I wish to call the 8th amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America: "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted".
It is unusual, in fact, that a new team is punished in that manner.
It is a common idea, here in Europe, that a RED CARD was given only to DQ some operators (IZ3EYZ and IT9GSF) to put them out of the WRTC.In fact the RC were given in the right time to disqualify them from WRTC. It was a too precise clock!
This is the reason I am sending this email to the Director of WRTC. I hope that Mr. Doug Grant, K1DG, can moderate the debate and admit Matteo, IZ3EYZ, and me, IT9GSF, in the WRTC competition.
I am sure that Randy, K5ZD, is in good faith even if some of his argumentation are excessive or false. In fact I have sayd that I will follow his suggestions and that I can help the Contest Committee in the future (SDR recorder at my station?).
This request, with all the answers, will be published in a cont magazine here in Italy.
Thank you, again, for your attention.
Best regards, Fabio Grisafi - IT9GSF.
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