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Just a few weeks after submitting the top Multi-Two score from North America in CQ WW SSB, the leader of the 6Y1V Multi-op team did an about face, refusing to enter his team's CQ WW CW score, in a protest over the public release of CQ WW logs on the internet.
"I am not in agreement with the CQWW committee's decision to publish logs without the implicit consent of the log owner simply to quell a fear of cheating, real or perceived," Kopacz wrote on the CQ-Contest reflector.
"We had nothing to hide," said 6Y1V team member Kelly Taylor VE4XT. "I would have supported filing our log, but I also told Dave it was his choice."
"If someone wants to protest, fine!" wrote CQ WW Contest Committee member Doug Zwiebel KR2Q on the CQ-Contest reflector, "BUT...how come 6Y1V submitted a log for CQWW 2008 SSB?"
"I didn’t want to send the SSB log either," Kopacz told radio-sport.net, "but there were extenuating circumstances."
Kopacz said those included a young ham he had sponsored for the contest, along with foreign guests who "spent significant funds to participate."
The decision to release CQ WW logs publicly is not new, as CQ Magzaine instituted that with the 2006 CQ WW contests.
"I was really surprised to learn my logs were being made public without my knowledge," Kopacz told radio-sport.net.
"I certainly didn’t read anything in the rules that stated submission of my log was my implicit consent to them being publicized."
But the notice is in the official rules in black and white.
"By submitting a log to the CQ WW Contest, the entrant agrees to have the log open to the public," states Rule XI(4).
The decision of Kopacz not to submit his team's log - presumably with a minimum of several thousand CQ WW CW contacts in it - quickly drew the ire of some fellow contesters.
"Without your log, any station that mis-logged your call, or zone, or band, etc., will have unfortunately and unfaily received UN-DESERVED QSO points and a MULTPLIER," wrote an aggravated Barry Merrill W5GN on the CQ-Contest reflector.
While Kopacz vowed to boycott CQ WW in the future and concentrate on other contests, the idea of public logs could soon move to another favorite of competitors, that being CQ WPX, where rules were updated for 2009 to include the following line:
"By submitting an entry in the CQ WPX Contest you agree that...2) your log entry may be made open to the public."
Others want to go even further, like releasing contest logs soon after the submission deadline.
"One day we will see it," one CQ WW Contest Committee member told radio-sport.net, arguing that would give the contest community the chance to assist log checkers.
So far, the idea of public logs has not spread to the ARRL, though many contesters have urged a change there, most recently in the VHF community, where the K8GP Grid Pirates group called for post-contest log publication to promote contest transparency.
Kopacz told radio-sport.net he hopes to change the tide on this issue.
"The only way I know to have an impact is make as many Q’s as possible and not report them, then hopefully, get others that agree to follow suit."
"I wonder if it is even legal in the United States for CQ Magazine to publish people’s logs without at least notifying them in advance," said Kopacz.
"I simply don’t believe that this is the way to handle fears of cheating."
Their 2008 score was never posted on 3830.
"No, we wouldn’t have won," said 6Y1V teammate Kelly Taylor VE4XT. "But that’s beside the point."
No log from 6Y1V may open up the M/S battle in North America to Team VE3EJ, which claimed 8.6 million points. 8P5W is next in claimed scores from all of North America with 8.3 million.
The only other major M/S was 5K0T, though their score was never posted on 3830 either.
The top known M/S score from the USA is that of W2FU with 6.6 million points.
As noted in the main story on the left, 6Y1V did send in a log for the 2008 CQ WW SSB contest.
Their claimed score in that test is just over 15 million in the Multi-Two category, good for third best in the World and first in North America.
In fact, the publicity of the logs has allowed the contest community to notify CQ WW of possible log checking errors.
"The CQWW Contest Committee greatly appreciates your feedback," CQ WW Contest Chief Bob Cox K3EST wrote on the CQ-Contest reflector in July of 2008 after a dustup over some UBN/NIL files.
"It helps us fix things and continuously improve the quality of the adjudication process," said Cox, acknowledging that CQ WW had erred in one case.
One hiccup occurred when two operators incorrectly entered their calls in their Cabrillo file, adding an extra letter. That ended up costing many stations points when they in fact got the calls of UN7MMM and JJ2CJB correct.
The logs have brought about some accusations of contest cheating, as well known operators like ES5TV and OH2UA have taken others to task on the CQ-Contest reflector.
"I think the idea behind open logs is simple," wrote Larry Tyree N6TR on the same reflector.
"Sunshine is the best disinfectant. It's a simple concept - and seems to be working."
Currently, logs from the 2007 CQ WW Contests are on line. The list of SSB logs - including that of 6Y1V - can be seen at http://www.cqww.com/ssblogs.htm.
CW logs are at http://www.cqww.com/cwlogs.htm.
