[CQ-Contest] Assisted vs unassisted claims and thoughts

[Tim Shoppa]

Many contests no longer make any distinction between assisted and
unassisted.

If TO7A had submitted his score as "assisted" he would've been an easy #1
in that category. In fact it is usually easier to place in the top-10
assisted box than the top-10 unassisted box the past several years,
possibly a result of WRTC selection details.

Making a purely clerical mistake in submitting a log and having it end up
in the wrong category is surprisingly easy. In some RTTY Roundup records, I
am listed as holding the record for MD/DC LP multi-op-low, purely because I
accidentally submitted that score as having assistance used and that
particular year, assistance meant multi-op category. In fact I did not use
assistance, so that is an undeserved record!!! (I think technically a real
multi-op-low has since surpassed that score but the ARRL record sheet still
not updated so I am still named). I had the opportunity to correct the
category, because the log robot told me it was putting me in multi-op low,
but I did not take that opportunity. Every time someone congratulates me on
that obscure contest record, I know that I do not deserve to hold it, it
was purely a log submission mistake!

I have a draft manuscript where I analyze CQ WW single-op claimed scores
and mults. I started purely with 3830 data but when the public logs became
available I can also see use that data. It is pretty easy to make a graph
with Q's on the X-axis and mults on the Y-axis. Color the unassisted
entries red dots, and the assisted entries blue dots. Most of the
competitive entries fall into two distinct "clouds", one higher cloud for
assisted, another lower cloud for unassisted. The clouds become even more
distinct if you look only at scores say from W1/W2/W3 or only from NA
Carribean-area-islands. The red dots that appear in the blue cloud? Those
are almost certainly unclaimed assistance.

Some of the guys who obviously did unclaimed assistance, have the most
obtuse chain of logic and claims in their 3830 comments where they are
already defending the truthiness of their unassisted claim. To misquote
Shakespeare, "Methinks thou dost protest too much."

The CQWW FAQ makes it pretty clear that hooking up to cluster for any
reason (seeing only spots for yourself say) means you are assisted. "Q: If
I am a Single Operator, can I use the Reverse Beacon Network (RBN) or DX
Cluster to look for spots of my own callsign? A: No, this is not permitted.
If you do this, you should enter as Single Operator Assisted."
I would like it if the contest organizers offered folks who had "obviously"
made a submission category mistake, the chance to "correct" their entry
category. This can get tricky with a very top tier entry where maybe
obfuscation was already being used. But it would prevent some shame for the
lower-level ops who simply made a clerical mistake in submitting the log.
Tim N3QE