Topband: [Fwd: Re: Equal opportunity]

[Herb Schoenbohm]

Art K6XT wrote:

> In the just concluded CQWW 160M CW contest I was told "no dupes" by a 
> multiplier DX station. The DX op would not complete the QSO. Timing wise 
> there is no doubt who the DX was telling "no dupes". I had in fact 
> worked that call a week or two prior to the contest on TB. This is the 
> only active station from the country, the only opportunity for the mult. 
> Some were able to log it, some who definitely had access were not.
 

Art,

I had a similar problem in reverse but only related to the 160 meter contest
when a European whose multiplier I needed called me again the next day.  He showed 
up on the "dupe warning error".  Maybe this was a multi op who did not know 
who the other op worked the day before and/or there was no ability for their logger 
to reject dupes, or even worse he had copied my call wrong in the first or 
second place. This happens enough to worry about it especially with the 
penalties for making mistakes in this contest.  Fortunately N1MM allows 
me to log the second contact as a dupe by not stricking the return key 
but rather by the mouse click on "log it".  It assigns no points to the 
contact and also displays when the station was first worked.  One could 
also easily scroll up and delete the first contact and leave the second 
but that is not a wise choice either since when checking their log the 
duped station could remove the second contact and then you both lose.

My advice to DX contesters: Reply to the suspected dupe caller and send 
the exchange and let the logging software do the work.  I takes less 
time than going back and forth send "no dupes" no dupes" which is 
probably programmed in to the logging program as a special hot key.

So my question is: What is wrong in logging the dupes as long as no 
point credit is provided? At least there will a record of the contact(s) 
without any punishment.  Plus the LOTW credits are there to use for one 
or both.

BTW I uploaded my 160CQ contest log a few minutes after the conclusion 
of the contest.  This should save some TB's the cost of postage which 
now in some countries like DL is allmost 3 times the cost of a U.S. 98 
cents stamp.


Herb, KV4FZ