[CQ-Contest] CQ WW Committee blog post - audio recording

[w5ov at w5ov.com]

Dave,

Seriously, in all of this, there is one way to avoid all of it.  Do not
cheat.  It is as simple as that.  If you do not cheat it will not be
likely you will be asked for anything.

If you do cheat, with the proliferation of all kinds of data available and
SDR recordings on every continent, contest adjudicators can determine what
was going on very easily.

As has been seen this year, many more stations were caught and
disqualified than ever before.  Last year was the same.  The trend of
increasing disqualifications is likely to continue.  If cheating is still
rampant, then disqualifications will increase.  Maybe, the higher
likelihood of getting caught will reduce the number of those who will
cheat next year?  I certainly hope so.  It would be nice not to have so
many disqualifications.

Remember too, that MORE warnings were issued this year than there were
disqualifications!  So, there could have been more DQs had the evidence
been more compelling.

The behavior of cheaters is that they apparently believe that it is
impossible to "prove" cheating.  While if we use the same standards as
required in a court of law, we might not, but this is amateur radio
contesting and we have a team of experienced contesters looking at all
evidence available, and collectively, what is possible and what is likely
is taken into consideration.  Allowing for people who don't know better,
or are beginners is also taken into account - if the entrants are
forthright and helpful in the analysis.

So, what do you do?  Obey the rules.  Do not cheat.  You will likely get
caught.  If you happen to win something, and do not cheat, great!

Those who won this year were not asked for recordings - because there was
no reason to ask them.  Others, who were warned last year about apparent
cheating, and were explicitly told that if the behavior was repeated, they
would be asked for recordings.  One or more did not comply and their logs
were converted to Checklogs as a result.

The CQWW committee does not want to do this.  Any thought otherwise is
simply incorrect.

73,

Bob W5OV
CQWW Contest Committee


On Tue, April 18, 2017 1:10 pm, Dave Edmonds wrote:
> Great comments... How about this scenario.....
>
>
> I start working the contest without a recording knowing that I would not
> be able to give it a 'competitive' effort due to the fact that my wife and
> I
> are attending a wedding on Saturday. We'll on Saturday morning I receive a
>  call from the wedding party that the groom ran away with the maid of
> honor and the wedding was canceled..Now I'm not going to the wedding and I
> can devote my weekend to the contest.... Oooopppps... I can't be
> competitive because I could win a top 3 spot in the USA and if I win I
> could be DQ'ed.
>
> What do I do?
>
>
> A. Don't work the contest competitively (that's no fun).
> B. Work the contest competitively and submit a check log (that's no
> reward). C. Work the contest competitively, submit a log and bet on the
> contest committee not requesting a recording. D. Blow off the contest and
> find another wedding to attend.
>
> Thoughts?
> Dave at wn4afp.com
>
>
> On Mon, Apr 17, 2017 at 9:10 PM, Mark <markzl3ab at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>> The CQ WW Committee blog post about audio recording is a bit of
>> surprise to me.  Up until now I had figured audio recording would only
>> be an issue in Oceania for the serious entrants (i.e. entries with lots
>> of QSOs and/or hours on the air).  In Oceania a casual entry of 1-200 Qs
>> could easily put you in the top three of just about any single op single
>> band category, assuming the category even had three entrants (I won the
>> Oceania CW 40m QRP
>> assisted category and set a new record with one QSO and two points a few
>>  years back).  In its post the committee quotes the Asian 160m low
>> power category.  Looking at the 2016 SSB results there were no entrants
>> in that category (assuming there wasn't an entrant(s) who was moved to a
>> checklog for not audio recording) so any entry at all would have won it.
>> In Oceania
>> there was one entrant who made four QSOs.
>>
>> I would pick most if not all ops who perceive themselves as casual
>> would not audio record their entry (or even know they had to).  Is it
>> really the Committee's intention to DQ casual entrants who end up in the
>> top three due to a lack of other entrants, if they do not provide an
>> audio record?  If so then I'd suggest the rules should be amended to
>> make it clear that any entry competitive or not which ends up in the top
>> three is subject to the audio recording requirement because casual ops
>> will not consider themselves competitive.  It will of course have the
>> effect of decimating casual single category entries in this part of
>> world (such as it is) by ops who just enter for fun but who do not want
>> to run the risk of being besmirched by a DQ.
>> A better way (and it seems to me contesting is heading this way in
>> general) would be for entrants to be able to enter any category they
>> like but designate themselves as casual or competitive.  If casual then
>> they would not need to provide an audio record but could still be listed
>> in the results database for their category (assuming they comply with
>> the other rules).  However they would not eligible for a certificate
>> which would go to the highest competitive entries and who of course
>> would need to provide an audio record on request.  Also only competitive
>> entries would be eligible to set records and to be listed in the top
>> entrant lists in the results write up.  At least this way an entrant can
>> make a conscious decision as to how they want their entry to be treated
>> rather than run the risk of a DQ if they are unlucky enough to enter a
>> category with less than three other entrants.
>>
>> 73
>> Mark ZL3AB
>> _______________________________________________
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>> CQ-Contest at contesting.com
>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Dave Edmonds
> PK Ministry Webs
> 864.288.6678
> dave at pkministrywebs.com www.pkministrywebs.com
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