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A day after a radio-sport.net story and hours after a stinging public rebuke by a six time CQ WW contest winner, the CQ WW Contest Committee announced it would not combine the Single Operator and Single Operator Assisted categories because of concerns over cheating.
"The CQ WW CC has indeed been discussing the impact of packet on the SO category," wrote contest director Bob Cox K3EST on the CQ-Contest reflector.
"This should not be surprising to anyone."
Cox said a "very thoughtful and detailed discussion" had taken place, which resulted in a decision for no change in the Single Operator categories.
"In other words, not only do we continue to totally support SO and SOA being separate, we intend to move towards strengthening the SO category," said Cox.
Monday's report by radio-sport.net of discussions by the contest committee on the Single Operator issue sparked sharp criticism of the often-secretive work of the CQ WW CC, as contesters from around the world denounced the idea of a combined category.
"I am against 'killing' true Single Op entries," wrote Dan Kovatch W8CAR in an email.
"Many ops will just not operate a contest if this comes to pass."
"I pride myself on old fashioned amateur radio skills. Being able to listen to the bands and work what I can hear and hunt down the multipliers with my ears," wrote Bert Cook K6CSL to radio-sport.net.
"I do not want to be forced to compete against stations who are using operating aids that I choose not to use," Cook added.
"There are thousands of contesters who are of the firm opinion that true skills are determined by operating without tools like clusters and skimmers," said Mats Strandberg SM6LRR in an email.
"If the committee finds itself unable to find cheaters, then the tools of finding them must be improved."
"If contesting is forced to acknowledge that the cheaters have eliminated the true Single Op, than my days of serious contesting are over," wrote Jim George N3BB to radio-sport.net.
That sentiment was the crux of a hard hitting message on the CQ-Contest reflector from former champ and past CQ WW committee member Jim Neiger N6TJ, who blasted the work of the CQ WW CC in an open letter.
"Will the CQ CONTEST COMMITTEE open its closed discussions of the fate of Single Operator categories to the public or will we first learn of them when the rules are changed?" thundered Neiger, a six time winner of CQ WW.
Neiger made clear his opposition to the idea of a single Single Operator category, saying, "major crutches like packet and skimmers will make all past records null and void."
"Single Operator - Assisted multiplier totals will soon rival those of the Multi-multi submittals," he wrote.
"All I can do now is plea: open up your deliberations and discussions on these matters," he added.
Twenty hours later, K3EST gave his own rebuttal, assuring contesters around the world that CQ WW will stay at the forefront of efforts to root out cheating.
"Another important subject being discussed in the CQ WW CC at this time is improved checking techniques, which are proving to be very effective against the very few “bad apples” who decide to violate the rules," said Cox.
Cox also took exception to criticism of the committee, defending their work on the SO/SOA matter and more, saying "many recent comments made about the CQWW CC's activities are simply not based on the facts."
"We are a group of committed contesters that care about the sport and want to do the right thing."
Cox announced a move on the public relations front for CQ WW as well, naming Gene Zimmerman W3ZZ as their "information officer."
"Gene will provide regular updates with ongoing bulletins," said Cox.
Zimmerman was one of three observers for the 2009 CQ WW CW contest, as he was dispatched to Barbados to check on the effort of Tom Georgens W2SC/8P5A.
One question that remains unanswered from CQ WW on the observer trips by W3ZZ, G3SXW and S50XX is who paid for their trips to the Canary Islands, Barbados and the Madeira Islands.
Read the original radio-sport.net story on this matter at http://www.radio-sport.net/cqww_09wrap.htm
Here is the SSB Top Ten in SOAB High Power:
The appearance of Jim Sullivan W7EJ in second place is notable, because his winning score in 2004 of 20.9 million points is the highest score in the last ten years in CQ WW SSB, since the 1999 record setting victory of Jeff Steinman N5TJ.
That year, Steinman ended up with 25.6 million after log checks, snapping the world record set a year earlier by N6KT at HC8A.
Here are the top claimed scores so far in the Single Operator High Power category:
Trailing EF8M is Andy Blank N2NT, who ran up 11.2 million points from St. Kitts at his V47NT station.
Three operators made the top ten claimed scores in both the SSB and CW contests, as Tom Georgens 8P5A (W2SC), Toni Linden CR2X (OH2UA) and Mike Tessmer K9NW pulled off that trick.
Tessmer's accomplishment may be the most impressive, as he had the 8th best score in SSB from HT2N in Nicaragua, and then traveled to Botswana and finished 9th in CW as A25NW.
"I went into both events with the intent of making a bunch of QSOs and final standing would be whatever it was," Tessmer told radio-sport.net. "I'm quite pleased the way things turned out!"
"In SSB I actually started out as low power but conditions on the low bands the first night were such that I was having trouble working guys and wasn't having fun so I flipped on the amp after about three hours of beating my head against the wall - and it got a whole lot better!"
World Scores
World Scores
