[CQ-Contest] Cheating

[David Gilbert]

Fine for you to defend your friends, Hans, and you may be right.

But you've gone over into some stark raving fantasy world when you claim 
that 99.99% of contesters don't cheat.  There isn't any segment of 
humanity anywhere that honest, and I find it hilarious that anybody 
would think that hams are somehow more honest than the average human.  
Studies, tests, and observations over decades by LOTS of different 
sociologists prove that you aren't even close in your opinion.  Deny it 
all you want, but humans are wired to seek every advantage they can in 
almost all situations, and it is only our learned behavior boundaries 
that hold us back from breaking rules.

In real life people lie, they cheat, they dishonor, they fudge ... to 
one degree or another depending upon the situation.  And that's out in 
the open with real stakes involved.  What on earth makes you think that 
an essentially random slice of the population (ham radio contesters) 
operating with almost zero external scrutiny in an event with virtually 
no jeopardy is going to magically be different??

And for heaven's sake quit with the neighborhood crap.  Absolutely none 
of my comments bear any relation to any contester I know because my 
comments derive from reading I've done on the subject and observations 
I've made during my 69 years on this earth involving people I've met in 
over 30 countries.

It would be interesting for someone to create a truly anonymous survey 
of active contesters with the simple question "in all of your years of 
contesting, can you honestly claim that you've never knowingly violated 
any rule, no matter how trivial?"  One of us is going to be very 
surprised by the result.

Dave   AB7E



On 8/23/2016 2:39 PM, Radio K0HB wrote:
> My "neighborhood" of contesting and DX'ing friends are guys like NØAT,
> KØKK, KØTO, KØIR, KØKX, KTØR(SK), KØFVF(SK), KØRC, KØSR, KØAD, WØAIH, KØMD,
> NØIJ, WØGJ, K4IU, KØMPH, etc.
>
> There is NOBODY in that group, and hundreds more that I know now, and have
> known over my 50-some years in DX and Radio-sporting, that I can imagine
> being outside the rules, even just a smidgen.
>
> The interminable jeremiads crying "cheat" on CQ-Contest, mostly by noted
> hams whose credentials I otherwise admire, is loutish and Ill-mannered. It
> insults the community of hams, 99.99% of who play by the rules.
>
> If you know a cheater, well then turn him in; but don't condone the
> widespread internet trashing of hams in general. We are better than that.
> Your neighborhood may vary.
>
> 73, HB