[UK-CONTEST] Contest Cheating

[brian coyne]

It is encouraging to see the sponsors of the RDXC taking measures to discover, and discourage, the cheats. In addition to the RBN monitoring they added a requirment in their rules that cabrillo logs show the qrg for each qso for any entrant who is vying for a top spot. Use of cluster is now a busted flush, skimmers and the like are not yet detectable but ambitious cheats looking for a highly placed finish will be detactable by their behaviour patterns.
 
Power cheats are harder to prove, if at all. I empathise with Danny Horvet E73M, not in what he did but in sharing his frustration at the blatancy of the cheats who dare you to catch them and prove it and the dragons set to catch them too often do not have any teeth anyway. Mind it does make you wonder when you see  high profile ops such as ES5TV being fingered for using 5KW
 
http://www.e73m.com/I_have_cheated.php
 
A couple of years ago I entered cqww ssb, along with Steve, ZC4LI and a visiting east eu op. We all did single band 15Mtrs. When Steve is HP and I, LP I normally achieve around 66% of his q count. I was more than surprised seeing the claimed scores
C4Z - 1300+q's. ZC4LI - 1800+q's. 5B/XXXXX - 2200+q's........ and quite amazed when I noted his entry was LP unassisted. I used 100w to a 3 ele triband yagi up 15mtrs, Steve has 1KW to a 3 ele up 20 mtrs. 5B/XXXXX claimed 100w to a Moxon wire beam on a hotel roof.
 
There were so many reasons why this looked wrong,
1) I tuned across him many times and, on ssb especially, you know when you are hearing an amp, he was loud.
2) He was about 20km east of me in Larnaca, both close to the sea but only useful for the south and east as there is sharply rising ground to the north & northwest (eu). Steve is located a further 20km north east of Larnaca at about 300'elevation with good low angle takeoff all around.
3) There were10 active stns from 5B that appeared on this band whereas ZC4LI was unique dxcc.
4) As a low power stn, moreso on ssb, it is hard in this contest to find elbow room and difficult to get any runs going let alone sustain them. Later when I was able to see his log I found lots of long runs into eu and na, add to the mix the 'hardship' of that mouthful of a call on ssb.
 
The whole thing had a smell so I made some grumbling noises to Roger, G3SXW in his role as cqww advisor, he set the wheels in motion and I was contacted, so there was an investigation. There was no action taken but I had the satisfaction that this other op would know he was under suspicion although he probably won't care if he thinks he can continue to get away with it.
 
I have a partial solution and that is for CC's to send out the message to cheats "We know who you are" Send a personal mail to all suspects to the effect that they must pre-register their entry with details of all equipment to be used, the category of entry, assisted or unassisted, power levels to be used. The address and co-ordinates of the location. If visiting foreign climes the hotel room no to be notified to the CC by email upon arrival. There should be notice that random inspections will occur and immediate access must be granted.
 
The CC's will have contacts in the majority of countries, and where not those countries will have radio clubs who can be asked for help in providing inspectors. Obviously the far flung high profile suspects may feel safe but they won't be sure as there is precedent for visits in cqww but the vast majority reside in east and south eu operating from home and they should feel threatened.
 
I must confess that the above incident has somewhat curbed my enthusiasm for major contesting, What is the point of busting a gut in an event you have no, or little, chance of winning. I truly hope that