[CQ-Contest] Ethics of operating overtime in SS

[W0MU Mike Fatchett]

It harms no one?

Anyone working guys after 24 hours is giving out "phantom" points that 
should not count.  So VE4 or any one should be able to continue to give 
out that mult and/or points after their time has expired?

Lets say K0EU worked VE4AA and both were in their allotted 24 hour 
periods.  VE4AA continues to operate over the allotted 24 hours and K7BG 
still needed VE4 and finds VE4AA and works him.  VE4AA is the only VE4 
in K7BG's log.

K7BG ends up beating K0EU in the end  by a few points and nobody is harmed?

The rules clearly state to operate 24 hours.  End of story.  It does not 
say stay on and continue to hand out one sided points. Contacts made 
after your 24 hour period is over should not count for either party as 
you are clearly operating outside the rules the way they are currently 
written.  After 24 hours are up YOUR contest period is over, done, finished.

I am quite surprised to read that K5ZD operates 5 to 10 minutes longer 
to make sure he gets his 1440 minutes in.  Does that mean it is ok to 
operate CQ WW till around 0010 then?  What exactly is the difference?  
If your contest period is over it is over. Obviously,  the CQ WW ends 
for everyone at 0000z.  Our computers are able to calculate time very 
accurately, how did we manage when we did this on paper?

Car races end after X laps by the car finishing first, they do not 
continue on till the car that is down 20 laps finishes the other 20 laps 
with all the other cars still running around the track racing.

DQ?  A bit harsh but maybe not if the Qso's made after the time period 
are removed from your log and you lose by a qso that was wasted working 
someone who really should not be operating anymore.

What do you do?  You don't ignore the rules because the log checking 
program just tosses out one side of contacts made outside the allotted 
24 hours.

The problem is that not everyone in the contest is really in the 
contest.  I could go to KP2A with a bunch of guys and we chose to 
operate KP2A Multi-Multi for 30 hours and don't submit a score so there 
is no problem right?  Those submitting a log to be considered for 
scoring should follow each and every rule.

When people interpret clearly written rules like this to meet their own 
objectives does it really surprise people when others are trying to 
stretch the rules?

I never realized there were the written rules and then a bunch of rules 
only known to those who do the log checking, etc.......... The rules 
don't seem to reflect reality.

Mike W0MU

  On 10/28/2013 6:03 PM, George Fremin III wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 28, 2013 at 04:52:35PM -0600, W0MU Mike Fatchett wrote:
>> The rules are pretty clear.  Apparently what they are doing wit the logs
>> is contrary to the rules.  Maybe the rules should be more clearly
>> written.  Why have rules that you don't enforce?
>>
>> It is pretty clear that the rules say to operate 24 of the 30. They do
>> not say if you operate more than 24 hours your score will be determined
>> by the first 24 hours of operation.
>>
>> So what is it ARRL?
> Huh?
>
> I think the log checking is enforcing the 24 hour time limit just fine.
>
> How else should they handle a log that is over time?
>
> DQ the entrant?
>
> The rule sets a time limit to the operating period.
>
> If someone operates more than the 1440 minutes of on time then
> it makes sense to me to enforce it just as they do - by removing
> all the points that are made after 1440 minutes of on time.
>
> It is not to your advantage to operate more that 1440 minutes and as far
> as I can tell it harms no one.
>
>>> 2.4. All entries may operate no more than 24 of the 30 hours.
>>> 2.5. Off periods may not be less than 30 minutes in length.
>>> 2.6. Times off and on must be clearly noted in paper logs. In
>>> electronically-submitted Cabrillo logs, off-times are calculated by the
>>> log-checking software.
>>> 2.7. Listening time counts as operating time.
>