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After a series of high profile disqualifications in the 2008 CQ WW DX Contests, a new rule being instituted for the 2009 CQ WW DX tests would require certain operators who are under scrutiny for possible rules violations to have a third party visit during the contest.
"A competitor contacted by the CQ WW Contest Committee prior to the contest must agree to a scheduled visitation by a representative of the CQ WW CC during the contest," the new rule states.
"Failure of the entrant to respond to our correspondence or to allow an observer full access to the contest QTH will result in the entrant's call being removed from award eligibility for 5 years."
In person officiating is not unheard of in contesting, but has been used only for the World Radiosport Team Championships, which are due to be run next year from Russia alongside the regular IARU contest.
But other than WRTC, in person visits are unheard of as a regular part of ham radio contest rules, a dramatic change that highlights the struggle of judging certain top scoring entries.
The new rule was recently agreed to by the CQ WW Contest Committee, and was posted as part of the 2009 rules update that can be accessed from the home page of CQ Magazine.
When this article was posted, the link to the new 2009 rules was still not available from the main website of the CQ WW Contest at http://www.cqww.com
The decision to require such a "scheduled visitation" during a contest would be a landmark change for CQ WW, which has waged a behind the scenes war against cheating in recent years, one that members of the CQ WW CC now clearly acknowledge have not worked.
The new rules seems aimed mainly at two top scorers in the 2008 CQ WW DX CW Contest, Hrane Milosevic YT1AD and Valery Komarov RD3AF.
Their high scores from 3V8BB (YT1AD) and EF8M (RD3AF) came under immediate scrutiny late last year by CQ WW committee members, who have wrestled internally with whether to DQ one or both of them.
"The Committee is aware of a major wave of (cheating) problems in the European scene," said one CQ WW CC member back in January.
The results of CQ WW CW 2008 - and any DQ's - will be made public in coming days.
Contacted by radio-sport.net, Komarov denied any wrongdoing, and said he had not heard from the CQ WW Contest Committee.
"I worked fairly, one radio, did not use the second transceiver and it was observed by all my friends who were present during my work," said the Russian contester.
"Certainly I heard that they wish to disqualify me for work in CQ WW CW 2008," he added.
This is part of an email received from Toni Linden OH2UA.
"From a competitors point of view it's really unmotivating if contest organizers do not act as judges should and let all the entrants pass the checking no matter what's been done at the station.
"I'd like the contest organizers to change a bit their way of viewing things. Now in most of cases CCs' (not talking only about CQWW) are actually protecting the cheaters instead of protecting those playing by rules...
"From my own point of view I can say that I'm really pissed off with the situation here in Europe at the moment. Sometimes I have to hold my posting to 3830 until I can see what those "well known cheaters" in same category have done. There's guys playing around that may add some missing 5% to their score after the contest if we finish close enough.
"Those DQs' in CQWW 2008 are the first step to right way. But there's still a lot of work to be done. I'd like to see some changes in rules as well."
"I'd like to suggest the following changes:
Mid term actions (maybe 2010 or 2011)
These suggesstions were made by Toni Linden OH2UA. If you have your own ideas, or would like to add your voice to this ever-evolving story, please send them to radio-sport.net
