More Cheating Penalties In Final Results of CQ WW CW 2009; 3 Red Cards, 50 Moved Into Assisted

By Jamie Dupree NS3T radio-sport.net
Posted September 6, 2010

The cheating crackdown rolls on in the world's biggest ham radio contest, as the final results for the 2009 CQ WW CW Contest included three "Red Card" disqualifications, one "Yellow Card" warning, and the shift of 50 different entries into the Assisted category.
Two of the DQ's went to operators who were also disqualified in the 2009 CQ WW SSB contest, as Rolandas Jokubauskas 4L3A/LY4A and Gyorgy Kasper HA1CW (op HG5A) earned Red Cards in both contests.
Pál Vrbovszki HA8JV would also have been a double Red Card DQ, but he withdrew his log - as is allowed under the rules - instead of facing a CQ WW sanction.
Here are the penalties announced in CQ Magazine's September issue:
Red cards:
* YL/4L3A—unverifiable contacts and unclaimed assistance
* HG5A (HA1CW)—unclaimed assistance and unverifiable contacts
* RX4HZ—unclaimed assistance and unverifiable contacts

Yellow card: YT8A—unclaimed assistance.
Withdrawn logs: DK2FG, HA8JV.
As in the CQ WW SSB test, a number of entries were moved into the Assisted category, as the CQ WW Contest Committee found that outside aid might have been used. When the operators were asked, fifty different operators agreed that they should not be in the 'un-assisted' category.
Those moved into the Assisted category in CQ WW CW were "5B4AIA, 9AŘAA, 9A4W, CT3KN, DL1LH, DL4UL, DL7AU, EA3AR, EA9/OL8R, EI6DX, HG3M, IG9U, IKŘXBX, K2MFY, LY2IJ, LZ2JA, LZ6W, LZ9X, M2X, N9BX, NI1L, OH8L, OK1NY, OK2ZO, OK3R, OM7CA, OT4A, PP5BZ, PY1KN, PY2SEX, RA9FTM, RC9O, RW6AH, RX9TL, S51FB, S52AW, S53O, SM5CEU, SN3A, SN7C, SP9W, SV2BFN, UA9UHN, UT2B, UT3L, UZŘU, W4UAT, YO9HP, YR9F, and YT1T."
The group of re-classified entries also included the first Americans as well, as so far, the CQ WW crackdown has been focused on operators from Europe and Russia.
Two operators were moved into Assisted in both CQ WW SSB and CQ WW CW - they were Andrey Totev LZ1RB, who ran LZ9X and Alex Panoiu YO9HP.
The highest placed operator in that group of 50 moved into the Assisted category was Petr Spacil OL8R, who had the fifth best claimed score in CQ WW CW Single Op Low Power.
The crackdown on cheating is enjoying widespread support in ham radio ranks, as the emails to radio-sport.net continue to be almost unanimous in favor of the CQ WW actions.
"In my opinion it should have been started years ago," said Don Mohney W3WW.
"It is also highly likely that if cheating of this magnitude is taking place in the CQ WW contests, it is also happening in others," said Jerry Spring VE6TL. "
Thus, the ARRL and other major contest organizers should follow CQ’s example and scrutinize the top scores in the major categories."
"I do think the ARRL should do more to publicize those that are caught “cooking the books”. If nothing else it lets contesters know they are checking and it would hopefully cut down on cheating," wrote Larry Maso NU4B.
"Shoving it under the rug because you don’t want to hurt somebody’s feelings doesn’t seem to work," he added.
"The very best advice participants should take from this is - Don't CHEAT!" said Jeff Briggs K1ZM. "Clean up your act and play fair - that's the only way."

CQ WW Sets Record Crackdown

In just two years, the CQ WW Contest Committee has gone from one where hardly any operators were disqualified in public, to a group that is sending a strong message to the amateur radio contest community - don't cheat.
After high profile DQ's of a group of Multi-Singles in the 2008 CQ WW SSB, and then the DQ of the high claimed single op score in the CW test, the CQ WW CC followed in 2009 by issuing 10 "Red Card" DQ's, 5 "Yellow Card" warnings and in moving almost 80 operators into the Assisted category.
"If you plan to try to make the Top Scores box, you can count on your log being carefully checked," read the renewed warning in the CQ Magazine writeup of the 2009 CQ WW CW.
"Just as in other aspects of life, cheating will not be tolerated," the K3EST writeup emphasized.

CQ WW Speeds Up Log Submission Deadline For Both SSB & CW

Buried deep in the 2010 rules for the CQ WW DX Contests is a rule change that may catch some by surprise:
"All entries must be sent NO LATER than November 21, 2010 for the SSB section and December 21, 2010 for the CW section," reads the new deadline language.
In 2009, operators were given until December 1 for SSB entries and January 15, 2010 for CW.
It means no longer will you be able to put off your CW entry until after the Christmas holidays.

All CQ WW Logs Now On Web

Don't forget that you can check out the log of every single official entry in the CQ WW DX SSB and CW Contests on the internet.
CQ WW remains the only contest that uploads logs onto the web.
The CQ WW CW logs are available at http://www.cqww.com/cq-ww-cw-2009.htm, while the SSB logs can be found at http://www.cqww.com/cq-ww-ssb-2009.htm.