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With less than three weeks until the 2009 CQ WW SSB Contest, the disqualification rules for the CQ Worldwide Contests have been revised, making it into a process that involves "Yellow" and "Red" cards for contesting rule violations, akin to the rules for misconduct in international football.
"The new rule will have *no effect on 99+% of contesters," said CQ WW Contest Director Bob Cox K3EST in a statement issued on the CQ-Contest reflector this past weekend.
"We're taking a leaf from a competition familiar to everyone," said Cox, who addressed the issue during an internet Webinar sponsored by the Potomac Valley Radio Club.
"The new wording will allow us the freedom to have levels of violations, instead of all or none response," said Cox.
"A yellow card is essentially for a transgression such as using packet and not declaring it, and a red card is for a major violation in which your log is rejected," Cox added.
In his presentation, Cox made the case for the late series of changes to the disqualification section of the CQ WW rules, arguing it will make it easier to deal with entries that deserve punishment.
"A yellow card equals no possibility of winning an award or appearing in the records," he said.
Cox defended one provision that drew immediate criticism, which would allow contesters to withdraw their logs if there are questions about cheating.
"What you seem to be telling us is that it's okay to try and cheat, but if you get caught, you can still withdraw your log," said Mark W4SVO.
One change announced by Cox is that if a log is withdrawn by a contester, then that will be listed in the results in CQ Magazine.
The issue of "disappearing" logs in CQ WW drew sharp criticism in some contesting quarters in recent weeks, over several high profile logs which were submitted, but did not show up in the final results.
"We hope that this new rule will help to clarify some actions which we've undertaken over the years," said Cox.
"We believe this is a good re-wording of the rules."
During his webinar, Cox also took time to comment on controversy over the judging of the 2008 CQ WW Contests, denying that any "private DQ's" were handed out by the Committee.
"There were no hidden DQ's in the 2008 results; several entrants asked us that their logs be withdrawn," said Cox.
Some evidence may suggest otherwise though, such as the continuing controversy over the Multi-Single entry of Team 4L0A in the 2008 CQ WW CW Contest.
The 4L0A score was the highest claimed score in the world, but did not appear in the results, and was not listed as a DQ.
The committee also did not make any effort to say that the 4L0A score was left out of the results by mistake.
Last week the 4L0A issue got even murkier, as the 4L0A score was included in the updated records for 4L Georgia on the CQ WW website.
But after radio-sport.net reported on the issue, which raised questions about whether Team 4L0A's log had indeed been accepted, the score suddenly vanished from the CQ WW records page.
As for the various controversies that confronted the CQ WW Contest Committee in recent months, issues about rules and punishment dominated the panel's first Webinar.
"It's been a challenging year," acknowledged John Dorr K1AR, "I think we all know that."
"What we're doing is trying, and hopefully some of the changes that we are recommending are going to viewed positively by the contest community," Dorr added.
"One thing we want to make clear is that we are always open," said K3EST, "because essentially, we're like one of you, we're contesters."
PVRC President Ken Claerbout K4ZW said he hoped that CQ WW officials would conduct even more Webinars in the future, arguing that it's an important way to help inform the contest community about any new rules and more.
"I was pleased with it and glad to see a wide global audience," Claerbout told radio-sport.net.
"It's a good step towards broadening the dialog between the committee and contest community. Hopefully there will be more to come!"
There will be more from the PVRC Webinar with the CQ WW Contest Committee leaders in coming days, as we near the 2009 CQ WW SSB Contest.
If you would like to listen to their presentation, you can view and listen to it on the PVRC website.
YELLOW card = Not eligible for an award in the entered contest. An entrant or operator issued a yellow card will be listed in the published results with a number symbol (#) before their call.
Two yellow cards: An entrant or operator receiving two yellow cards in three consecutive CQ WW DX contests will be ineligible for any CQ –sponsored contest award for a period of two years beginning with the publication of the second violation in CQ magazine. If the entrant is in a multi-operator category, all listed operators are so affected.
RED card = Full Disqualification (DQ). Submitted log is rejected. Entrants receiving a red card will be listed at the end of the published results. An entrant or operator receiving a red card will be ineligible for any CQ-sponsored contest award for a period of one year beginning with the publication of the violation in CQ magazine.
Two red cards: An entry or operator receiving two red cards within five consecutive CQ WW DX contests will be ineligible for any CQ –sponsored contest award for a period of three years beginning with the month of publication of the second violation in CQ magazine. If the entrant is in a multi-operator category, all listed operators are so affected.
1. The CQ WW Contest Committee reserves the right to accept or reject any entry.
2. Violation of the rules of the contest or country of operation makes the entrant subject to either a red or yellow card at the discretion of the CQ WW Contest Committee. Reclassification to a category other than that submitted will result in an automatic yellow card.
3. Unsportsmanlike conduct can be grounds for either a red or yellow card at the discretion of the CQ WW Contest Committee. Unsportsmanlike conduct includes but is not limited to ANY use by an entrant of any non-amateur means in the contest including, but not limited to, telephones, Internet, instant messaging, chat rooms, VoIP, or the use of any DX cluster/reflector to SOLICIT, ARRANGE, or CONFIRM any contacts during the contest (exception see Xtreme category rules).
4. Taking credit for excessive unverifiable QSOs or unverifiable multipliers may result in a yellow card.
5. An entrant is free to withdraw his/her submitted log for any reason prior to receiving an official letter from the CQ WW Contest Committee. The log will then be handled per the entrant’s request. If after receiving an official letter from the CQ WW Contest Committee, an entrant chooses to withdraw their log, the entrant’s call will be listed at end of the results showing their log as having been withdrawn.
6. By submitting a CQ WW DX contest log, an entrant agrees that the use of red cards, yellow cards, log withdrawal and other decisions of the CQ WW Contest Committee are official and final.
Can "Yellow Cards" and "Red Cards" hold down cheating in ham radio contests?
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