One of the
ongoing honesty issues in amateur radio contesting is the submission of logs
claiming unassisted operation while, in fact, the operator is benefiting from
various types of on-air assistance, such as spotting networks. Apparently,
there's a similar issue in yacht racing, and ham radio is right in the middle
of it.Participants in the Golden Globe yacht race - a non-stop round-the-world race using 1960s technology - according to Newsline, are allowed to use amateur radio if they're appropriately licensed, but may not request or use any form of outside assistance. According to Newsline, one skipper was recently sanctioned for requesting weather routing assistance from another ham. The conversation was recorded and provided to race headquarters. The skipper told the committee that he didn't realize the information involved routing and was allowed to continue the non-stop round-the-world race with a 72-hour penalty. He finished in third place despite the penalty. For more race info, see <https://goldengloberace.com/>.
