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A year after issuing a series of high profile disqualifications, the CQ WW Contest Committee has continued its crackdown on cheating in log checks on the 2009 CQ WW SSB contest, tossing out the top QRP score and moving a top low power entrant to the Assisted category.
The news of the first use of "Red" and "Yellow" cards for violations of the rules came as results of the 2009 SSB contest were released in the August 2010 issue of CQ Magazine.
A year after disqualifying five major multi-ops in the 2008 contests, the 2009 tests feature seven "Red Card" DQ's, along with four "Yellow Card" warnings, the first use of that penalty structure since it was unveiled just before the 2009 contests.
The biggest Red Card went to QRP claimed score leader Barney Bandrack DK8ZB, who was disqualified for "self-spotting and unverifiable contacts" from KP4KE in Puerto Rico.
Bandrack's claimed score of over 5 million points dwarfed all other entries in the QRP category, none of which ended up with 500,000 points after log checks.
Other "Red Card" violators included:
The CQ WW DX Contest rules on "Red Card" violations state that 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."
Four "Yellow Card" warnings were also handed out for "unclaimed assistance" to RU6CQ, SO6X (SP6IXF), UR6IMF and YT7Z (YU7SK).
A majority of those who were handed Red and Yellow cards submitted single band entries.
For example, Rolandas Jokubauskas LY4A, who was given a Red Card for his operation as 4L3A, had the highest claimed score in the High Power 80 meter category.
Adam Sobczak SP7CHS was given a Red Card for his entry as SN7C, where he had the world's top 15 meter single band QRP score.
One of the Yellow Cards knocked out Kirill UR6IMF, who had the world's top claimed score in the 40 meter single band QRP category.
What do you think of the Red and Yellow cards and the public listing of stations who admitted they were really operating Assisted?
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"We sent out a QSO spotting inquiry to over 75 stations in the Top Scores box," wrote CQ WW Chairman Bob Cox K3EST.
"We asked them to confirm that they were really not assisted."
In other words, they were told that contest log software checks had shown that those stations most likely were using a QSO spotting network, even though they had not entered the Assisted category.
The stations cited in the CQ WW SSB writeup included the leader in the radio-sport.net Single Operator World Standings, Teddy Jiminez HI3TEJ.
Jiminez had originally submitted his entry in the Single Operator All Band Low Power category as indicated by his log:
"The following stations replied yes, they were assisted: 3V8SS, E73W, EF1W, HA8BE, HI3TEJ, HK1X, IK4TVP, IT9RWB, IW7EBE, LX7I, LZ1NG, LZ2JA, LZ9X, PU2LEP, PY2WC, RVØAL, SN3X, SP4XQN, SV2DCD, UA3BS, UT7MW, UW1M, UX2X, UZØU, YO8WW, YO9HP, YT5C, YU2A, and YU7ZZ," said the CQ WW report.
That statement was a major change for the CQ WW Contest Committee, which in the past has handled such category changes involving outside assistance in a quiet manner.
