[CQ-Contest] Disqualified callsigns - CQ WW SSB contest.

[Stephen Hicks, N5AC]

On Thu, Apr 13, 2017 at 9:03 AM, Steve London <n2icarrl at gmail.com> wrote:

> One of those DQed is a YB who made about 50 QSO's, and may not even
> understand what self-spotting is. But the worst that happens to a USA
> contester, who knowingly or carelessly works stations out-of-band, is that
> he/she loses the QSO and gets a slap on the wrist.
>
> That's simply a message to USA contesters that, in the future, they have
> nothing to lose (except possibly the QSO) if they work stations out-of-band.
>

​I'd like to suggest that wandering out of band during a contest, while
illegal and against contest rules, could happen to any contest team.
Picture four guys who have planned to run a contest for a year and they
have allowed a new, aspiring, contester to join them.  In the heat of
battle this individual makes a contact out of band.  It is caught and not
duplicated and represents an "honest mistake."  I wouldn't DQ someone for
this.

On the other hand, self-spotting is an overt action that would not likely
be accomplished "accidentally."  Anyone who has participated in contests
knows it's against the rules and a DQ-level event, primarily because of the
multiplicative effect (each deviation from the rule can result in many
contacts, quickly).  If someone is new and does it, not having read the
rules or realizing it's an issue, they simply blow their first contest,
apologize and move on.  Yes, that sucks, but you're likely to make this
mistake only once.

I think the character of these is different enough to warrant different
behaviors from the organizers.  Just to add to both of these, ask any
accomplished contester these two questions: "Have you EVER transmitted out
of band?" and "Have you EVER self-spotted in a contest where it's against
the rules."  My bet is that most will fess up to the first and say they
accidentally tuned up out of band or hit the wrong button on the radio,
etc. and have done this at least once, said "whoops!" and fixed the
problem.  I suspect the answer to the latter is "never."

Steve​, N5AC