The North Pole Contest Group - KL7RA - strongly opposes CQ’s decision to prevent Russian stations from participating in CQ contests. If this policy stands, we will opt to skip CQ-sponsored contests… all of them.
First, let us state that NPCG vehemently objects to Russian aggression in the Ukraine and that we support sanctions against the Russian government as a way to both express our objection and to pressure Russia to leave the Ukraine immediately. That said, we believe that amateur radio, and contesting as an activity, is an extremely poor forum in which to make political statements, no matter how egregious the issue.
CQ’s decision does several objectionable things. First, it penalizes innocent people. Russian operators are not making the decisions about the Ukraine invasion. It also penalizes hams in all other countries because we are denied the opportunity to work any of the thousands of Russian stations that would otherwise be in the contest. The argument that the decision affects all operators equally is specious. Any penalty to any participating station is not justified in this case. Even if the intent is to encourage Russian amateurs to pressure their government to change course, Amateur Radio is not the proper forum for this, nor is CQ Magazine the proper entity to do so.
Second, it injects world politics into a forum that has traditionally been apolitical. Amateur radio has been apolitical for its entire existence. As operators, we have a tradition of participating with amateurs in all countries regardless of the geopolitical landscape. Various countries (the United States included) have had Banned Country lists, but these bans were by regulation rather than conscience. In fact, we have embraced the idea that amateur radio is a bridge between people in times of tension. We all worked Soviet hams through the cold war.
Third, by participation in the contest, we as a group and as individual members of our team are giving tacit approval to a policy that is diametrically opposed to the spirit of amateur radio. This opens the door to so many other questionable policies that it makes contesting as a sport difficult to justify. By the logic that allows this ban, a contest sponsor could create a “Red State” contest or a “Blue State” contest. This is clearly unacceptable.
NPCG is committed to participating in WPX, but only if this change is rescinded. If the contest goes on with this change in place, we will not participate, and we will not participate in any CQ-sponsored contests.
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