[CQ-Contest] 4U1WB disqualified in the 2017 CQ World-Wide WPX SSB Contest

Fri Oct 27 09:04:35 EDT 2017

Wait... so let me see if I understand this correctly.

4U1WB was properly and legally licensed by the United Nations, to operate out of a UN agency located at a UN office building located in Washington DC.

Under DXCC rules in place at the time, 4U1WB did not qualify for separate entity status, therefore, it is recognized for DXCC purposes as being located in the United States.

But it is not licensed by the FCC because the US Government recognizes the World Bank building as a UN facility that for diplomatic and related legal purposes is not under the jurisdiction of the US.  In short, for this reason (and all the related details I'm glossing over), it cannot be licensed by the FCC.

With all that in mind... and after all this time...

NOW 4U1WB is disqualified because it does not hold a US license?  A license it cannot hold?

With no disrespect intended, that's absurd.  Ridiculous.  Almost insane.  

I thought the whole idea of this level of scrutiny was to catch the people who are "cheating".  Not to DQ a legitimate station that has a bit of an unusual (but legal) status.

I guess this means we'll be seeing DQWPX 2017 buttons soon, to go along with the DQWW 2016 ones that were available at Hamvention & other places?

73, ron W3WN

-----Original Message-----
From: Masa Miura, AJ3M <masa.miura.aj3m at gmail.com>
To: CQ-Contest <CQ-Contest at contesting.com>
Cc: Terry Zivney <n4tz at cqwpx.com>; Richard Moseson <w2vu at cq-amateur-radio.com>
Sent: Thu, Oct 26, 2017 8:17 pm
Subject: [CQ-Contest] 4U1WB disqualified in the 2017 CQ World-Wide WPX SSB Contest

Greetings All:The CQ WPX Contest Committee decided to disqualify 4U1WB in the 2017 CQWorld-Wide WPX SSB Contest. The final results were published in theSeptember 2017 issue of CQ Magazine and a list of disqualified entries,including 4U1WB, is on page 109. See the following website:http://www.cq-amateur-radio.com/cq_contests/cq_ww_wpx_contest/cq_ww_wpx_ssb_contest/2017_cq_ww_wpx_ssb_contest/2017_cq_ww_wpx_ssb_line_scores.pdfI sent the email below on October 24, 2017 to Terry, N4TZ (n4tz at cqwpx.com),CQ WPX Contest Director, regarding the Committee’s decision. Terry has notyet replied to me. I also copied Rich, W2VU (w2vu at cq-amateur-radio.com)of CQ Magazine, the Contest sponsor.As you will note below, I sent my first email to Terry about thedisqualification on October 22. He indicated in his email dated October 23to me that 4U1WB was disqualified because the call sign was not issued bythe FCC while the log that I submitted showed the United States as thecountry of 4U1WB's operation. 4U1WB is a United Nations call sign and thestation is located in Washington, DC, the capital of the United States.I do not know if Terry or the Contest Committee contacted me by emailbefore the disqualification was published. The October 23 email from Terrydid not refer to any prior notification. Please see the following from theWPX Contest rules:D. Disciplinary Actions: In the event of a violation, the entrant issubject to disqualification at the discretion of the Committee.1. DISQUALIFICATION: Entry will be listed at the end of the publishedresults and is not eligible for an award.2. Notification of Committee actions will be sent by email to the addressprovided with the log submission. The entrant has five days to appeal thedecision to the Contest Director. After that time the decision is final.I looked for such an email in my inbox and spam folder after I found out inthe CQ Magazine that 4U1WB was disqualified. I did not find any priorcorrespondence from them. I cannot say for sure that I was not contacted byemail. I believe that some emails are getting lost in cyberspace. It mighthave been in my spam folder and was deleted for some reason. However, Iwould like to highlight that the Contest Director relied on unreceiptedemail(s) and made such an important decision that could have extremelyserious negative impact on a fellow contester's reputation in the contestcommunity.I have participated in the WPX Contests many times from the 4U1WB clubstation mainly because I enjoy contesting and being part of the worldwidecontest community. I will probably never win a major contest from the 4U1WBstation. Another reason is that the WPX Contest rules include thefollowing: Special event, commemorative, and other unique prefix stationsare encouraged to participate.If the Contest Director maintains his position and intends to disqualify4U1WB again in the future because of the same reason that he cited, itmeans that 4U1WB is not welcome to participate in the WPX Contests. 4U1WBwill not participate in the future unless a positive outcome is achieved.I will keep you all posted.73,Masa-- Masa Miura, AJ3Mmasa.miura.aj3m at gmail.comaj3m at arrl.netmasahiro.miura.tu94 at dartmouth.eduhttps://www.facebook.com/masahiro.miura.tu94---------- Forwarded message ----------From: Masa Miura, AJ3M <masa.miura.aj3m at gmail.com>Date: Tue, Oct 24, 2017 at 6:08 PMSubject: Fwd: 4U1WB disqualification in the 2017 CQ World-Wide WPX SSBContest: No more 4U1WB in the WPX Contests in the future?To: k5zd at contesting.com, sbolia at woh.rr.com, k6aw at arrl.netCc: Terry Zivney <n4tz at cqwpx.com>, w2vu at cq-amateur-radio.com---------- Forwarded message ----------From: Masa Miura, AJ3M <masa.miura.aj3m at gmail.com>Date: Tue, Oct 24, 2017 at 5:59 PMSubject: 4U1WB disqualification in the 2017 CQ World-Wide WPX SSB Contest:No more 4U1WB in the WPX Contests in the future?To: Terry Zivney <n4tz at cqwpx.com>Cc: w0yk at cqwpxrtty.com, f6bee at cqwpx.com, k1ea at cqwpx.com, jh4rhf atarrl.net,k1dg at cqwpx.com, k5zd at cqwpx.com, n8bjq at cqwpx.com, k6aw at cqwpx.com,w2vu at cq-amateur-radio.comDear Terry:Thank you very much for your email below dated October 23, 2017 in responseto my email dated October 22, 2017 regarding the CQ WPX Contest Committee’sdecision to disqualify 4U1WB in the 2017 CQ World-Wide WPX SSB Contest. TheSeptember issue of CQ Magazine included the results for the Contest and alist of disqualified entries, including 4U1WB. I participated in theContest from the World Bank Group Staff Amateur Radio Club’s station inWashington, DC. I am the President of the Club and we use 4U1WB issued bythe United Nations because of the World Bank’s status as a multinationaldevelopment institution.Please note that the Club is not part of or an agent or affiliate of theWorld Bank. It is an association of staff members of the World Bank Group.The World Bank Group assumes no liability or responsibility for theactivities of the Club.The purpose of this email is to request that you, the CQ WPX ContestDirector, (i) reconsider the final decision with respect to 4U1WB’sdisqualification; and (ii) inform the contest community that the decisionwas completely wrong. I strongly believe that 4U1WB was disqualified for novalid reason.You indicated in your email that 4U1WB was disqualified because it was notlicensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the licensingauthority of the United States, while the log that I submitted showed theUS as 4U1WB’s country of operation. More specifically, you stated that4U1WB violated Rule V. (Scoring) C2 that I reproduce below:2. Special event, commemorative, and other unique prefix stations areencouraged to participate. Prefixes must be assigned by the licensingauthority of the country of operation.As stated in the attached, 4U1WB has been properly licensed by the UnitedNations and our Club is allowed to use the call sign from our station inWashington, DC. The call sign was granted in August 1989 under theauthority granted the United Nations by the InternationalTelecommunications Union and in coordination with the United StatesAdministration. In July 1989, the State Department’s Bureau ofInternational Communications and Information Policy stated in a letter tothe UN’s Chief of Telecommunication Service that authorities at the FederalCommunication Commission, the National Telecommunications and InformationAdministration, and the Department of State were consulted about theissuance of the 4U1WB call sign. According to the same letter, the USAdministration had no objection to the issuance of this call sign by theUnited Nations.I am sure that you, as a fellow contester, know that considering an entrantfor a disqualification means that the contest committee is challenging theoperator’s integrity and sportsmanship. I fully understand that the CQ WPXContest Committee’s intention is to protect the integrity of thecompetition and address any violations of the trust that underliesradiosport competition. My reputation in the worldwide contest community isvery important to me. Our Club’s reputation is equally important. Thedamage was done.While you might not have seen my own call sign AJ3M in many contestresults, I have participated in major contests, including those sponsoredby CQ Magazine, as a member of multi teams, such as KM4M (at K4JA), KD4D(at N3HBX), B1Z, KE3X (at N3HBX), HG5C, K4VV, and E22AAA. I have been amember of the Potomac Valley Radio Club (PVRC) since 1997.I contacted you on the 22nd, because the published results did not explainwhy 4U1WB was disqualified. In fact, quite a few fellow amateurs havealready contacted me to ask me why the CQ WPX Contest Committeedisqualified 4U1WB. I promised to them that I will post a messageexplaining this incident to the CQ Contest Reflector later this week.While I have participated in many major contests, including those sponsoredby CQ Magazine, from 4U1WB, 4U1WB has never been disqualified.Please note that 4U1WB has a 25-year history of vigorous participation inthe CQ WPX Contests and no previous Contest Director has ever raised anyissue with the validity of the entry, as can be seen at http://www.cqwpx.com/searchbycall.htm?cl=4u1wb&submit=GoIn particular, I would like to highlight that the CQ World-Wide WPX RTTYContest results for 2017 included 4U1WB’s score as a valid one while therule that you cited is also included in the CQ WW WPX RTTY Contestrules.http://www.cq-amateur-radio.com/cq_contests/cq_ww_rtty_wpx_contest/2017_cq_ww_rtty_wpx_contest/2017_07_cq_wpx_rtty_scores.pdfIn addition, I am not aware of any disqualifications of 4U stationsproperly licensed by the United Nations, such as 4U1VIC at the ViennaInternational Centre in Vienna, Austria, in the long history of suchoperations from diverse locations in various contests, including the WPXContests.I will share this correspondence on the PVRC reflector because the 4U1WBdisqualification adversely affected the aggregate score of the PVRC in theclub competition. As I mentioned earlier, I will also post a message aboutthis disqualification to the CQ Contest Reflector later this week.Please note that the members of the CQ WPX Contest Committee and the CQ WPXRTTY Contest Director, Ed Muns, W0YK, are copied on this email. In addition,Jun Tanaka, JH4RHF, of 4U1VIC, and Rich Moseson, W2VU, of CQ Magazine, arecopied.Regards,Masa Miura, AJ3MPresident, World Bank Group Staff Amateur Radio ClubOn Mon, Oct 23, 2017 at 10:32 AM, Terry Zivney <n4tz at cqwpx.com> wrote:> 4U1WB violated rule 5C2:>> *2.* Special event, commemorative, and other unique prefix stations are> encouraged to participate. Prefixes must be assigned by the licensing> authority of the country of operation.>> 4U1 is not assigned by the FCC, the licensing authority of the USA, which> is> what the log of 4U1WB showed as the country of operation.>> 73>> Terry N4TZ, CQ WPX Contest Director> On Sunday, October 22, 2017 7:30 PM, Masahiro Miura <> masa.miura.aj3m at gmail.com> wrote:>>> Terry,>> I am forwarding the email below to you. Look forward to hearing from you.>> 73,>> Masa> AJ3M>>>>> *差出人:* Masahiro Miura <masa.miura.aj3m at gmail.com>> *日時:* 2017年10月22日 19:27:14 GMT-4> *宛先:* questions at cqwpx.com> *件名:* *2017 WPX SSB 4u1wb*>> I participated in the WPX SSB Contest this year from 4U1WB. I just found> out that 4U1WB was disqualified.>> Can you please explain why?>> Thanks.>> 73,>> Masa> AJ3M>_______________________________________________CQ-Contest mailing listCQ-Contest at contesting.comhttp://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest