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With the ham radio contest community still buzzing about the results of the 2008 CQ WW DX SSB test, which saw the disqualification of five Multi-Single teams, radio-sport.net has learned that the CQ WW DX CW results will also include major DQ news as well.
Without revealing the extent of those decisions, radio-sport.net has been told that the rulings of the CQ WW Contest Committee are expected to determine the winner of the 2008 Single Op All Band High Power category in the CW leg of CQ WW DX.
If that pans out, such a move would almost dwarf the unprecedented five DQ's handed out in the SSB test, which knocked out five multi-single teams: D4C, 9A7A, 9A1P, UU7J and E7DX.
Last week, team leaders for D4C and 9A1P acknowledged to radio-sport.net that their logs had been altered to make sure certain contacts did not violate the 10-minute rule for Multi-Singles, and now a third team has stepped forward to basically admit the same.
"Most of the findings of log checkers considering our log from CQ WW DX SSB 2008 are probably correct," said Braco Memic OE1EMS, who led the E7DX Multi-Single team in CQ WW DX SSB 2008.
"It is a pity to be DQ, but i think this is a correct decision anyway," he added.
Memic though publicly urged the CQ WW DX Contest Committee to apply their tougher standards to all.
"If they start to punish like this (what is correct) they need to do it for everyone and for ANY kinds of rules violations," Memic said.
The E7DX team leader though did vow that the future would be different.
"We shall strive to stamp out any signs of cheating from within our team meaning this should be your last mail to us on this subject," he told the CQ WW DX Contest Committee.
The revelations of the CQ WW DX DQ's sparked the usual round of reaction and hand wringing in contest circles, as operators the world over grappled with how best to handle such questions in the future.
"I was particularly struck how most of those who were disqualified didn’t deny that they cheated; but were indignant to be disqualified – a punishment they thought went too far," wrote Jeff Davis KE9V on his blog.
"Let the message be clear, "Break the rules then suffer the consequences," blogged Scot Morrison KA3DRR.
Also raised directly was the messy thought - as brought up by OE1EMS above - that these five multis aren't the only ones playing with the clock or with the rules in major contests like CQ WW.
"From another angle, it is my impression, based on some personal experience, that rubber-clocking at multi-singles and multi-2s is very common," wrote Pete Smith N4ZR on the CQ-Contest reflector.
Smith didn't back up his allegation, but he didn't need to, since stories like that aren't anything new, whether it's about rubber clocking or the use of too much power, a subject that came up at a Contest University seminar in Dayton on contest ethics.
Meanwhile, there were others pointing the finger at the five DQ'd stations in CQ WW SSB.
"For what it may be worth, one of those same stations clearly and explicitly asked me to spot them on the cluster when I worked them in the 2009 CQ WPX CW contest," wrote David Gilbert AB7E on CQ-Contest, who said he had reported it.
Historically, CQ Magazine has said as little as possible about disqualifications, preferring to keep the focus on the results of the contest.
In certain situations, DQ's were not even issued - instead station logs simply disappeared from the final results, as has been written about before here on radio-sport.net.
Again this year, there were complaints that the CQ WW DX Contest Committee refused to respond to queries sent by stations, providing only the DQ ruling.
Radio-sport.net attempted to get more details, or a further explanation from the Contest Committee, but no reply was forthcoming.
As for comment from the teams that were DQ'd, here is an email sent to the CQ WW DX Contest Committee by the E7DX team, which was disqualified in the 2008 CQ WW DX SSB Contest.
The note was provided to radio-sport.net by E7DX team leader Braco Memic OE1EMS.
"Dear CQ WW Contest Committee,
Thank you for your interesting mail and analysis. You didn’t request a response or explanation from us, however given the seriousness of your findings we feel obliged to send you our comments.
Firstly, it is very reassuring to see that high claimed score logs come under such scrutiny and we thank you for that. We at E7DX try to ensure all our team members play by the rules in respecting ham spirit throughout the contest. Unfortunately, it would seem that some of our team members have forgotten this approach. We don’t have recordings or a log of who operated when and where, but will be interrogating all participants to find out how such discrepancies came about.
Either way, the rules are the rules and must be respected. Please feel free to remove all instances of “rubber clocking” that you see fit to or remove us from the final results. As you will have seen through our postings and web pages, E7DX is investing heavily in aluminium, hardware and know how to compete at the very top. We shall strive to stamp out any signs of cheating from within our team meaning this should be your last mail to us on this subject.
Looking forward to working you in the coming contests,
73 de E7DX Team
