Part of an ongoing public relations offensive on cheating, the organizers of the CQ World Wide DX Contest are again urging contesters around the world to follow their operating rules and embrace "fair play."
"It is very important for all of us to promote fair play in contesting," said CQ WW Director Bob Cox K3EST, who drove that point home both in a recent webinar and in a message to the CQ-Contest reflector.
"The results depend on all of us being honest; using undeclared help to find QSO's gives an entrant an advantage," Cox added, urging all to "follow the rules of your category."
The area where cheating has received most attention in recent years has been the question of whether Single Operator stations were really operating "un-assisted," or whether entrants were illegally getting outside aid.
It was one reason that CQ WW last year expanded the Assisted categories to include both low power and QRP, as contest organizers have gone out of their way to publicize new awards and more for Assisted entries.
"We at CQ are really encouraged by growth in the Assisted category," said Zwiebel.
Trying To Crack Down on Excess Power
Almost any gathering of ham radio contesters can at some point devolve into a discussion of who might use illegal power, with some evidence accidentally spilling out onto the internet in recent years with videos and pictures of certain station setups showing possible power violations.
"One of the biggest challenges we have as a committee is dealing with power abuse," said John Dorr K1AR on the recent CQ WW Webinar, acknowledging that it is almost impossible to monitor such activity.
"I think it's fairly well recognized that abuse of power and running illegal power is becoming and probably has been for a long time a significant challenge," Dorr said, urging the ham radio contest community to use peer pressure to change behavior.
"It's dealing with each other in a very personal level and as friends and competitors to say, 'Come on, cut it out,' and 'Let's do the right thing,'" Dorr added.
CQ WW Contest Committee members basically admit they can't police extra power - that they must have the help of contesters around the world.
"It's really up to everybody who participates in the contest to go out of their way to make sure everybody is playing by the same set of rules, playing fair when it comes to power," said Doug Zwiebel KR2Q.
"It's important to bring it up and to emphasize fair play and honesty," said Cox, who has received strong support for taking a tough stand on contest cheating in recent years.
"Our sport is rather unique in that it doesn't allow for an on site referee," Cox said on the CQ WW Webinar.
"You're honor bound to do the right thing."