Forum » HF Contesting » General contesting question

General contesting question

Displaying 1-7 of 7

Jun 10th 2015, 14:39
N8WNG Joined: Apr 4th 1998, 00:00 Total Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0	I have asked about this before and I am not confident that I was given the correct answer in the past. My question is this: If I decide to casually work a few stations that are participating in a contest but I don't submit a log for that contest, aren't I hurting the results of those stations in the contest? When the contester's submitted log is checked and there is no confirmation of my QSO because I didn't submit a log, isn't he, at least in some cases, penalized for submitting an unconfirmed QSO? I would like to use the contest to make some contacts, but not if I'm causing those stations to lose points in the contest. Even if there is no penalty given, do contesters consider that I'm wasting their time if I do as I've described? Am I misunderstanding the way contests are scored? Thanks for any insight here. N8WNG
Jun 10th 2015, 15:41
W1VT Super Moderator Joined: Apr 4th 1998, 00:00 Total Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0	I don't recall any contests that would penalize stations you worked if you did not submit a log. There is one contest, the Stew Perry 160M contest log, that gives additional points for confirmed contacts with low power stations. http://www.kkn.net/stew/stew.rules.txt But, they would still get some credit if you did not submit a log--your contacts would still be welcome even if you did not submit a log. Zack W1VT ARRL Senior Lab Engineer
Jun 10th 2015, 16:37
N8WNG Joined: Apr 4th 1998, 00:00 Total Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0	Perhaps I misunderstand what the checking process does. Wouldn't my QSO be unconfirmed (if I didn't submit a log)? What prevents a contester from just making up QSOs if they aren't confirmed in some way?
Jun 10th 2015, 16:49
N8WNG Joined: Apr 4th 1998, 00:00 Total Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0	Before asking this question I looked around for info about this. In the General Contest rules I found the following: 7.2. Score reduction may be made for taking credit for unconfirmed QSOs or multipliers, duplicate contacts or other scoring discrepancies. 7.8. In a paper log, for each duplicate contact that is claimed for credit, each miscopied call sign or each busted exchange that is removed from the log by HQ, three additional contacts will be deleted as a penalty. In electronic logs, for each miscopied call sign or a QSO not appearing in the log of the claimed station, the QSO in question will be removed from the log and one additional contact will be deleted as a penalty; the penalty will not be considered part of the 2% disqualification criteria. A QSO with busted exchange data will be removed from the log with no additional penalty. Duplicate QSOs will be removed from the log without penalty. Are these rules that aren't enforced in practice? If I'm totally missing something, I'm sorry. I do appreciate your time in clarifying this for me.
Jun 14th 2015, 00:34
AI4BJ Joined: Sep 2nd 2003, 12:14 Total Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0	Most contests operate on the honor system. However, in some of the big contests (e.g. CQ WW), the sponsors do closely examine the logs of the top finishers to check for irregularities. For instance, if one contestant has a statistically large number of unique calls in their log, this would certainly raise suspicions. But let's say you casually work half a dozen stations during a contest and do not submit a log. Your call will show up in (probably) several logs, so you wouldn't be causing any problems. Big contests are now routinely recorded using SDRs, so trying to log bogus QSOs is pretty risky business. Bottom line: Don't feel guilty about not submitting a log. The stations you work are happy to have you in their log. Mark AI4BJ
Jun 14th 2015, 04:23
N8WNG Joined: Apr 4th 1998, 00:00 Total Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0	Thanks Mark and Zack, your answers have been very helpful.
Nov 21st 2015, 00:41
W5PR Joined: Apr 4th 1998, 00:00 Total Topics: 0 Total Posts: 0	If you only worked one station in the contest and did not submit a log, you would be marked as a "unique." There is usually not a penalty unless there are too many uniques. If you work several stations who submit a log, you would no longer be a unique.