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With an extensive analysis by Spanish hams in hand that makes claims of "log padding" by Team DA0HQ in the 2009 IARU Contest, officials at the American Radio Relay League say they are withholding judgment on the findings until the charges draw a response from the Deustcher Amateur Radio Club of Germany.
"The ARRL has received URE’s analysis of DAØHQ’s log in the 2009 IARU HF Championship," said Sean Kutzko KX9X, the ARRL Contest Branch Manager.
"The DARC has stated they will respond to the allegations in a reasonable time. We will decide on a course of action once we receive DARC’s response," Kutzko added.
Complicating the response has been the serious illness of DA0HQ organizer and DARC official Lothar Wilke DL3TD.
DARC officials have already told Spanish hams from the Union de Radioaficionados Espanoles (URE) not to expect any reply until later in May. The URE sent them their analysis of the DA0HQ log on April 12.
"I am still writing to the concerned DL call owners before I give an official statement," said Dietmar Kasper DL3DXX, who has taken over DL3TD's responsibilities for now, "so I definitely will not say that someone was doing anything wrong before I receive their response."
DARC has posted a short comment about this on the German language version of its website, saying that the initial review of the URE documents do not confirm the allegations.
The back-and-forth is the latest chapter in a controversy over the scoring of the 2009 IARU Contest, which first saw URE's Team AO8HQ declared the winner, then over two thousand "uniques" were added back to the log of DA0HQ, making them the winner.
The URE then did an extensive review of the DA0HQ log and found repeated instances where a single operator contacted only DA0HQ using multiple callsigns in an effort to boost the DA0HQ score.
The Spanish cited Rule 3.3 of the General ARRL rules for contests, which says "An operator may not use more than one call sign from any given location during the contest period."
The URE produced two documents, which were sent to the ARRL and IARU officials, which you can read on the internet:
Some of the evidence in those reviews showed multiple calls for a single ham used in rapid fire succession, often in the same sequence as the station moved with DA0HQ from band to band, something the Spaniards charge is nothing more than "log padding".
"The ARRL was asked to administer the IARU HF Championship by the IARU Administrative Council some years ago," wrote Kutzko. "We welcome suggestions from IARU member-societies on how the event can be improved."
One idea is to make in-country QSO's worth nothing at all, other than a mult for the station contacting the HQ entry.
"IARU HF World Championship rules should be amended forthwith, such that contacts made between HQ stations and others located in their territory attract zero points," suggested Bob Henderson 5B4AGN.
Another idea sent to radio-sport.net is to force stations to make contacts with more than their own country's HQ station, as was done by a number of the German stations shown in the URE review.
Milan Pelech OK1VWK brough up the issue for the last IARU Region 1 meeting in February, raising questions about the 2300 unique DL callsigns in the DA0HQ log.
It's "nothing new for me and EU HQ contest community," Pelech told radio-sport.net. "Described is long term DA0HQ practice over last maybe 10 years back."
Several emails also suggested that the HQ competition has become too much of a focus for the IARU.
"Historically, HQ stations used to send in checklogs only," said Henryk Zwolski SP9JPA. "Please return to the original status of the HQ stations."
"I have never seen such a well documented case of cheating, said Milt Jensen N5IA.
"Not just one case of one type of cheating, but multiple cases of different kinds of cheating."
"What more does the ARRL and the IARU need?" Jensen asked.
"I am speechless," said Mats Strandberg SM6LRR.
"Before reading this survey, I was of the firm opinion that German contesters did not belong to the category of doubtful radiosport people that uses unethical measures to obtain victory."
"When even one of the biggest and most important National Amateur Radio Assosiations, DARC, seemingly has so little control of their own activity - how can we then expect that individual contesters can behave ethically?" Strandberg added.
"I fully understand the frustration of the URE team," said Peter DF3KV, who also gave the thumbs down to the massive use of "multiple call signs, borrowed” calls" to give extra points to DA0HQ.
"If we are to have any sort of credible competition in amateur radio, we must not let this issue be dealt with behind closed doors," said Pete Smith N4ZR.
"ARRL/IARU *must* seriously explore and independently test the charges made by URE, and if they are found to be true, DA0HQ *must* be disqualified," Smith told radio-sport.net.
"I believe no ham radio contester is a saint," said Francisco Costa CT1EAT. "However things look to be out of control, and the more you dig, the more dirt you get."
Some from Germany though suggested that the URE hams needed to review their own contest plans, arguing that the use of an EA8 location from the Canary Islands does not exactly square with the rules.
"Radio Unions should take part from their main land and not from DX islands, to have the same chance as their neighbour countries," wrote Ben Nasner DL8UI.
"DA0HQ had to make 14.670 Qso's more, then the club station from URE located this time not on the main land Spain, to be the winner with a very small difference in points," he added.
Regardless of the outcome of the 2009 IARU, most hams who contacted radio-sport.net in the last week expressed frustration at the way the HQ competition has evolved in the IARU contest.
"The DARC, DA0HQ entry in 2009 IARU HF World Championship should be disqualified," said Bob Henderson 5B4AGN, who also argued for big changes for the future.
"The HQ aspect of this high profile IARU event has long encouraged the antithesis of good contest ethics and practice," Henderson said.
"That an event run under the banner of the International Amateur Radio Union should become a showcase for contesting malpractice is particularly regrettable."
Should there be a DQ? Or is it time for a rules change on the HQ stations?
Send your opinions to radio-sport.net
