K5ZD Commentary

Editorial on Cheating

A recent thread on CQ-Contest email reflector asked why keep the 1500W power limit if it is not being obeyed.  Below is my personal opinion, but I feel all CQWW participants should be thinking about this topic so I will share it here.

 

Contesting is a game.  Games have rules. The rules create barriers or constraints that equalize the competition or create strategic choices. If we ignore the rules we don’t like, the game is no longer meaningful.

Those stations that run more than 1500W are cheating. Much the same way users of performance enhancing drugs in bicycle racing, Olympic sports, baseball, etc. are cheating.

The temptation to cheat is strong.  “It doesn’t hurt anyone.” “It makes up for my poor location.” “Everyone else is doing it.” These are all justifications to make the cheater feel better. They do not make it right.

The cheaters are hurting the contest. Their loud (wide) signals drive other contesters off the bands. Participants lose faith in the integrity of the game and decide not to play. New contesters see the cheaters make big scores and think that they must cheat or that cheating is “OK”.

Power cheating happens all over the world. Temptation and lack of control is a human condition. In ham radio contesting it seems to happen much more in some places than others. These areas are so invested in cheating that they ask for the rules to be changed to make it OK.

In the end, it is a personal choice. For those that follow the rules we respect their integrity, their effort, and their achievements.  For the others, we see their scores, but we know they are dirty.  Maybe they are not disqualified (because there is not the oversight of professional sports), but we do not have to respect them.

Fair play means following the rules.  All of them.

Randy, K5ZD

 

K5ZD Announcements, Rules

CQWW Rules Available in 13 Languages

We are pleased to announce that the rules for the CQ WW DX Contest are now available in 13 languages. You can access any of the languages from http://www.cqww.com/rules.htm

Thanks to the following people for their help with the translations:

Arabic by KF5EYY

Bulgarian by LZ2CJ

Chinese by BD4WM

French by F6BEE

German by DK9VZ

Italian by I2WIJ

Japanese by JK3GAD

Portuguese by PY2WS

Romanian YO9FNP

Russian by VE3IAE

Slovenian by S50A

Spanish by EA4KD

Translating contest rules is not fun or easy.  We appreciate their time and energy (and those who helped with review and comments)  to help promote the CQ WW and contesting to more people around the world.

The rule translations are especially important this year with all of the changes. We have tried to make the translations as accurate as possible, but in the event of a dispute, the English version of the rules will be the standard.

Any questions about the rules or translations should be sent to questions@cqww.com.

K5ZD Announcements

Online Certificates now Available

We are pleased to announce that online certificates are now available for CQ WW DX Contest 2012 and later. All participants may download a certificate in Adobe pdf format and print it on their own computer. The Adobe Reader software is available for free download.

You can view certificate for any entry by going to the online score database, select the mode, use the filters to select the desired call or category, and then clicking on the [Cert] link at the right side of the score line.

The paper versions of the CQ WW certificates are a large size (9″ x 12″) that is not compatible with most home printers.  The Adobe Reader software can resize the certificate for printing.  For convenience, we also offer the option to download the certificate in the correct size for American Letter (8.5″ x 11″) or in the International A4 (210 mm x 297mm) paper. The certificate image is at a high resolution for quality printing. This makes the pdf files about 5.1Mb in size.

Certificates will show the call, operators, category, and score for the entry.  If an entry was in the top 20 of the World, Continent, or Country, that information will be shown as well.

If a score is a new all time record for the category and country, that fact will be shown in Red text.  The record is calculated from the scores in the database (currently 1998-2013).

CQ WW Online Certificate Example

Logs that were classified as late (received after the deadline) are not eligible for an online certificate, but are counted when calculating the order of finish.

Thanks to the continued efforts by Barry, W5GN, we plan to continue mailing paper certificates to the top scorers in each area. The online certificates are provided to give all participants the opportunity to display their success in the contest.

Special thanks to Tom, K5TM, for his assistance in developing the code to make online certificates possible. Thanks to CQ Magazine for providing the certificate artwork.

K5ZD Announcements

CQ WW Log Entry Statistics

As we continue to build out the CQ WW online score database, we are looking for fun new ways to make use of the data. It is always interesting to see how log submissions are changing in some countries over time or just how rare entries are from other countries.

The Statistics page now provides the ability to select by world, continent, or country and see the number of SSB and CW logs submitted over the full range of years in the database. The number of logs shown includes all categories, power levels, and Checklogs.

It’s fun to see how many log entries there have been from your area.

The number of JA logs has more than doubled in the past 10 years. At the same time, the number of logs from China has increased dramatically.

Logs from Germany have more than doubled over the period. European Russia is up 300%.

Visit http://www.cqww.com/stats.htm and use the filter selections to browse the reports.