Click here for RSS feeds or use the email signup form below to be notified about new radio-sport.net news updates
Donations are accepted. We appreciate the help!
The final numbers from the 2008 CQ WW CW contest do not include any mention of the top world claimed score in the Multi-Single category, as a radio-sport.net review of the latest results from CQ Magazine show that Team 4L0A is nowhere to be found in the 2008 CQ WW CW results.
4L0A claimed over 16 million points in M/S in a posting on 3830, as their CW log was posted online by the CQ WW Contest Committee.
You can also see confirmation of their contest entry on the CQ WW CW "Logs Received" page:
The operators at 4L0A in Georgia included 4L4WW, 4L4CR, 4L8A, UU1AZ, UU4JMG and UU0JM. The latter pair were both on Team UU0JM, which was disqualified in the 2008 CQ WW SSB Contest.
With their entry not part of the final results, Team PJ4A won the Multi-Single title over C4N.
4L0A was not the only high score that "disappeared" in the final results, as the CQ WW Contest Committee also quietly ditched other entries which evidently raised questions.
For example, the two leading claimed scores from Europe in the Single band 40 meters competition were not listed, even though Ivan Mastilovic YU1LA and Nikola Percin 9A5W both submitted entries of over a million points:
"They were significant claimed scores," said one aggravated member of the CQ WW Contest Committee, adding that there was "no explanation" given by CQ WW CC Chair Bob Cox K3EST as to why their scores simply disappeared from the final results in CQ Magazine.
Both 9A5W and YU1LA attracted the attention of log checkers for a variety of reasons. For example, YU1LA had in his log of a pair of "busted" calls that were spotted.
"You might call one busted spot worked a coincidence (making the same mistake as the spotter at the same time) although very unlikely one," said one CQ WW CC member in a submission to K3EST.
"Two or more is already rock solid proof" (of cheating).
YU1LA's log showed him working GJ2A - which was really G1A - seven minutes after that call was spotted. He also worked 5Z/RW1AU fifteen minutes after a packet spot. That station was actually signing as 5Z4/RW1AU.
One other missing score on 40 meters was from the US, where Paul Newberry N4PN had claimed what would have been a new US record on that band.
Like the others, N4PN's log was put online, and his call is listed on the Logs Received page, but Newberry's effort from W8JI is nowhere to be found in the final results. The reason was unclear.
Newberry told radio-sport.net he didn't know what the problem was.
"I haven't seen the CQ magazine but did send a note to the Contest committee," Newberry said, "so we'll see what comes back."
Historically, CQ Magazine has said as little as possible about disqualifications, preferring to keep the focus on the results of the contest.
This year is no different, as the usual terse announcement came after a list of check logs on the final page of the 2008 CW results:
"Disqualified: EF8M (RD3AF), RG3K (UA3QDX), YU2A. Log results deemed incompatible with category of entry."
But while those three stations were publicly targeted, the CQ WW Contest Committee continued a practice of quietly getting rid of certain entries deemed to be questionable, as DQ's are not issued, with certain logs simply disappearing from the final results.
One of the most celebrated examples of the "disappearing log" was the 2004 CQ WW CW entry of Hrane Milosevic YT1AD, when he had the high claimed score on 3830 of over 17 million points.
The 3V8BB log was submitted, but when one looks at the CQ WW CW results for 2004, YT1AD's score is nowhere to be found.
There was no mention of him being disqualified or that 3V8BB was a checklog. The log simply disappeared without explanation.
A source on the CQ WW Contest Committee confirms that Milosevic was in fact disqualified in 2004, but that it was never publicly announced.
"The log was terrible," said this CQ WW CC member, who indicated that the entry resembled that of a multi-operator log.
In that case, CQ WW CC Director Bob Cox K3EST wanted to re-classify the entry of Milosevic, but a trans-Atlantic telephone call between the two men went badly according to several sources on the committee.
Also - what do you think of private DQ's? Should the CQ WW Contest Committee publicly disqualify everyone? Or is it better to handle some cheating allegations by just making that log disappear, or by shifting an entry into a different category?
Send us your insights and more by e-mail to radio-sport.net
