<lots snipped>
>This was Dave's response:
>
>"Dear Jim:
>
>I'm sorry to learn, from your letter of August 8, about your Ten-Meter
>Contest entry problem. I have forwarded it to Chuck Hutchinson with
the
>request that he look into the matter.
>
>Congratulations on your club's excellent effort.
>
>73,
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Dave Sumner, K1ZZ
>Executive Vice President"
>
>
>
>
>I NEVER HEARD FROM CHUCK HUTCHINSON.
That really disheartens me, that the ARRL can't look into matters. I've
heard quite a few stories like this in the 3 years I've been licensed.
>The low power winner of that contest effort was another Florida Contest
>Group member, N4RN - but he wasn't shown as the operator - and in the
>breakdown boxes his score is shown as second due to a High Power score
by
>another entrant being put in the lead spot at the top of the box. The
ARRL
>attempted to fix this for N4RN by giving him a certificate, it stated
he
>had won the category for the 1997 contest....a contest which had not
even
>run yet!!!!!!
Again, I'm saddened that the ARRL has handled things like this the way
they have. Everything I saw after I got my ticket was stuff about how
great the ARRL was. While they do many great things, in the contesting
department, they have really been lacking over the last couple years.
>After this big foul up needless to say I made several long distance
calls
>after submitting my logs to the ARRL this past year...."are you sure
that
>you have the log, okay?" THIS APPARENTLY DOESN'T MATTER FROM WHAT I AM
>SEEING ON THE REFLECTORS HOWEVER, SEVERAL HAMS HAVE HAD THEIR ENTRIES
QSL'd
>- BUT THEY AIN'T ION THE RESULTS!
I don't even know if I'm in the results for this year's 10M contest.
Being out here in Seattle, I won't get my QST probably until the end of
the week. However, now I'm also getting worried, as I see all the
messages on CQ-contest.
>I got home this evening and I see that more and more messages are
showing
>up on CQ-Contest e-mail reflector - all of them along the same vein -
>including an e-mail from an Argentine station wanting to find out how
his
>groups multi-operator effort had faired.....that call is nowhere to be
>found in the write-up, I am glad I do NOT have to be the one writing
him.
I had a really bad feeling myself when I see numerous messages flying.
Then today's message from LU9AUY. This kind of thing is just
unexcusable.
>And where is the soapbox......has this been eliminated from ARRL
contest
>write-ups? Don't tell me - nobody really reads those things anyway,
right?
That's right, nobody really reads them...except thousands of people,
usually even those that only make 1 or 2 QSO's in a contest.
>This puny write-up makes no mention of the quality of the competition
>whatsoever: was it tight - did the second place guy get creamed by the
>first place guy? I wonder if I even might not have won the high power
CW
>category - odds appear good another score may have been left out of the
>listings!
Exactly. Right now, I don't trust that anyone with a "winning" score
actually won.
>You have forgotten who will be the ones manning the traffic stations
come
>the next emergency - hint, it ain't the tech plus shack on a belt guys
who
>do not know how to solder a PL259 onto a piece of RG213!
I seem to recall a letter in Correspondence, I think around the January
or Feburary QST, which talked about exactly that. Contesting not only
allows us a great way to compete, but allows untold numbers of people to
hone their operating skills, to prepare for an emergency.
Contesters have the skills to pass messages when the S/N is at -5 DB.
Contesters can cope with changing band conditions. There was a message
about multipliers in FD, to help people to learn how to get in contact
with any section at any given time. Contesting sure helps hone those
skills.
The prime example of this is during SS. Say you have 75 sections
already. Which bands to you need to get on to get those last 4
sections? Let's compare this to an emergency situation. Let's say that
the big earthquake that's supposed to happen here in Seattle has
happened. We need to get a message to MDC. It's 1800 UTC, 11 am local.
What band should we get to? (Okay, so it does depend on the solar cycle
some.) These are the sort of skills that contesting hones, and I know I
sure have learned a lot of these kinds of things in the year I've
seriously contested.
>WHY has contesting evolved and why has contesting been supported by the
>ARRL? Is the Sweepstakes exchange not a form of test by fire at copying
>message preambles? And what about international goodwill - is that
>enhanced by the Leagues leaving out entries from a foreign country?
Very well put.
>
>On behalf of the members of the Florida Contest Group, I feel the ARRL
owes
>one hell of a lot more than an apology to WD4AHZ and K1TO, no footnote
>score correction down the road will cut it this time...and it is not
just
>to them but to ALL the other contesters who have been worked hard at
this
>passion we call contesting - only to have their logs lost en mass.
I very much agree. I don't have an offical capacity aside from being a
member in the Western Washington DX Club, but I hope that contesters
around the world will say the same thing. I look back through my QST's
and see all the tiny prints. A #2 W/VE high power winner here. A top
high power score for Oceania there. These cookie-cutter prints just DO
NOT CUT IT. I feel that with the severity of this error, nothing short
of a re-print of the results, the CORRECT results, will be satisfactory.
Very well put Jim. Thank you for addressing this issue the way you
have, and I hope that other clubs will do the same thing.
73
David Jones, KK7GW
kk7gw@hotmail.com
Trustee for the Juanita Contesting Club-KD7BWU
jcontesting@hotmail.com
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