K5ZD Announcements, Log checking, SSB

CQ WW SSB 2014 Disqualifications and Warnings

The CQ WW Contest Committee takes its job as referee for the contest very seriously.  Each year a group of dedicated members spends many hours pouring over logs, listening to SDR recordings, and following up on input from the contest community.  We do not always have perfect information and it is difficult when each entrant is operating from their own station without any outside observer. Even so, the logs and recordings often tell us a clear story. It is our job as referees to call them as we see them.

Each disqualified entrant is notified of the decision and given 5 days to respond. We do this to allow everyone the opportunity to present an explanation of what appears in the log.

We regret to announce the following actions for CQ WW SSB 2014.

Disqualifications

Entrant (Operator) Violation
CT1FHL unclaimed assistance, self-spotting
DJ9ZB unclaimed assistance
E74Y unclaimed assistance
EN0U (UT5UDX) two signals, self-spotting, transmitting above 7200
EU6ML unclaimed assistance
F4BHW unclaimed assistance, self-spotting
F4FLQ unclaimed assistance, self-spotting
F4GVZ unclaimed assistance
HG1S* time shifting to meet band change rule
HG3M (HA3MY) unclaimed assistance, power, self-spotting
IK4DCX unclaimed assistance
IT9ESW unclaimed assistance
IZ7DMT unclaimed assistance
N3IQ (ND3F) unclaimed assistance
R3BM unclaimed assistance
R4WDX unclaimed assistance
RT4F (RK4FU) unclaimed assistance
RT6A** time shifting to meet band change rule
RX1CQ unclaimed assistance
SN5X (SP5GRM) unclaimed assistance
SP3PWL unclaimed assistance
UA5B unclaimed assistance
UA9JDP unclaimed assistance
YT7A (YU7BJ) unclaimed assistance

*HG1S (HA1TJ, HA1DAI, HA1DAC, HA6NF, HA7PL, HA8DM, HA1DAE)

** RT6A (R7AA, UA7C, UA6YW, RL3DR, RU6AX)

Warnings

Warnings are issued when a possible violation is detected, but there is not sufficient grounds to justify a disqualification -OR- when we want to make entrants aware that they will be under more scrutiny in the future.

Entrant (Operator) Violation
DJ7MH self-spotting
DM4X wide signal
NP2P (N2TTA) transmitting outside of license limitations
RT4F (RK4FU) wide signal
UW2M (UR0MC) wide signal

We saw a big increase in the number of stations from IARU Region 1 that were calling and working stations above 7200 Khz.  Using the SDR recordings (not frequencies in the logs), we verified over 100 stations transmitting outside the amateur band.  Many are probably the result of clicking on DX Cluster spots or simply following the lead of others that are breaking the rules. We have decided to issue warnings to all stations with 2 or more occurrences as a first step. In addition to the warning, any QSOs above 7200 were removed from scoring. Next year we may take more aggressive action if this behavior continues.

Entrant (Operator) Violation
9A3B (9A2VR) transmission above 7200
E74EBL transmission above 7200
9K2HN transmission above 7200
CN2R transmission above 7200
CR6K transmission above 7200
CR6P transmission above 7200
CT1EAV transmission above 7200
DP6T transmission above 7200
E79D transmission above 7200
EA3VN transmission above 7200
ED1B transmission above 7200
ED1R transmission above 7200
EE5T transmission above 7200
II2A transmission above 7200
IK2YCW transmission above 7200
IO5O transmission above 7200
IQ2MI transmission above 7200
IR4M transmission above 7200
IW2HAJ transmission above 7200
IZ2ODM transmission above 7200
IZ8EPX transmission above 7200
LZ5K transmission above 7200
LZ5R transmission above 7200
OE5T transmission above 7200
RA3OA transmission above 7200
SK3W transmission above 7200
SO4R transmission above 7200
SO9T transmission above 7200
UP2L transmission above 7200
UT1AA transmission above 7200
UT2UU transmission above 7200
UW7W transmission above 7200
OH0Z transmission above 7200
SV8/HA5OV transmission above 7200
TM1A transmission above 1850

 

Updated May 2, 2015

K5ZD CW, Log checking

CQ WW CW 2014 Log Checking Statistics

The log checking and results of the 2014 CQ WW DX Contest CW are now complete and have been sent to CQ Magazine.  The official results will appear in the May 2015 issue of CQ Magazine.

Some interesting statistics from the log checking for CQ WW CW 2014.

7,657 logs total
5,848,165 QSOs total
      213 different countries
   39,696 ( 0.7%) QSO with unique calls
   24,765 (62.4%) Unique calls busted during checking 
   58,372 ( 1.0%) Dupes
5,147,149 (88.0%) QSO checked against another log
5,008,392 (97.3%) QSO checked good when checked against another log
   78,460 ( 1.5%) Busted calls
   18,969 ( 0.4%) Busted exchange
   41,328 ( 0.8%) Not in Log

It is quite remarkable that we are able to fully cross check 88.0% of all QSOs in the logs received.

All entrants will be sent a link to their log checking report in the coming days. Use the report to compare your accuracy to the numbers above.

Median score reduction for all logs: 8.27%
Median Error Rate for all logs: 2.56%

(Median = 50% of logs are lower and 50% are higher.)

K5ZD Commentary

Certificates – Some things never change

Doug, K1DG, relayed this story:

K1AR told me that when W1WY was in charge of the CQ contests, he was also in charge of mailing the certificates.

Frank used cardboard mailing tubes for the certificates. He brought a few hundred to the post office and when the first one was weighed, it was just barely over the weight limit and bumped the postage cost into the next increment.

He took it home and baked it for a few hours to drive out any moisture, then took it back to the post office. It “made weight”, and could be shipped cheaper. He then proceed to hand the post office clerk the rest of the batch “just like that one”, and got them all shipped for the cheaper rate.

Fast-forward to 2015…

If you receive a certificate from a CQ-sponsored contest, you may notice that your address is printed on the envelope, rather than on a label.

Turns out that a label adds just enough weight to bump the large envelope with a certificate in it (a “flat” in PO speak) to the next weight class, raising the cost significantly, especially on the 75% of certificates that are mailed overseas.

 

Some things never change.

 

K5ZD Announcements, CW

Paper logs from CQ WW CW 2014

We continue to accept paper logs for the CQ WW DX Contest. A group of committee members and volunteers help type these logs into the computer so we can fully process them along with the other logs.

For CQ WW CW 2014, our volunteer typists included:

Call    Logs    QSOs 
LU5DX   6       1819 
W4AU    7        784 
VE3EJ   3        694 
US0LW   7        585 
G0MTN   5        493 
ZS4TX   4        489 
S50A    5        391 
HA1AG   1        217 
YU1EW   1         56 
K5ZD    2          7 
Total   41 logs  5,535 QSOs

We urge everyone to submit their logs in electronic format. We will continue to do our best to support submission of logs in any format — including paper.

Thanks to our typists for helping get all of the logs into the system.