To all 10 Meter Contest participants:
First, I would like to offer my apology if your score was omitted from the
10 meter Contest results. This is an inexcusable error, and it is my
intention that this does not occur again.
When I became the manager of the Membership Services Department in late
April, I immediately began to focus on the Contest Branch. I am aware of
problems in the Branch. We are taking steps to prevent future problems, and
some progress is being made.
We have had a problem with E-mail at HQ for some time. This problem is not
exclusive to, or caused by the Contest Branch, and applies to more than just
log submissions. Around the first of this year, attempts were made to sent
up an auto responder and bypass the in-house system. The auto responder
worked, but log gathering procedures did not. We found within only a few
days of operation that something was wrong, and changed systems once again.
When I came to the department, my first objective was to see that we had a
workable system to gather E-mailed logs. As of last weekend, we now have
such a system in operation. It has redundancy, with a computer outside of
the ARRL system also gathering the logs in combination with the in-house
system. You should receive a response that your log has been received, and
the log should be saved on two computers.
We have also instituted a program, effective with the ARRL DX CW Contest, of
posting logs received on our Web site as soon as the database of received
logs is completed. As we move further down the road, we hope to become
current, with daily updates of logs received, however, it will be a few more
months before we can catch up to that level.
Meanwhile we will be posting changes to the received logs list on the CQ
Contest Reflector as they occur.
Trey Garlough, N5KO, spent a week here in May reviewing the Contest Branch.
His assessment ( and mine) is that many of the basic systems to do the job
are already in place, but some procedures need to be changed. These changes
are currently being made, and we are beginning to see results from these
changes. However, due to lead times involved, it will be months before you
will see them. Trey will be helping us with the auto responder, as well as
other parts of the complete software system that will be installed in the
coming months.
Other prominent contesters have volunteered services as well. We hope to
have several changes coming on line by fall, especially with regard to log
checking methodology.
I will apologize again for the problems with the ten meter contest. If you
haven*t checked the results, they will be posted on our Web page later this
afternoon. If your log is omitted, please send a copy of the log file and
summary sheet to k5fuv@arrl.org.
Meanwhile, please bear with us as we put the planned changes into effect.
Our aim is to get back to having the premier contest program in Amateur
Radio. We know that's what you want and deserve, and we're going to make the
extra effort to get it for you.
73,
Bill Kennamer K5FUV
Membership Services Manager
bkennamer@arrl.org
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CQ-Contest on WWW: http://www.contesting.com/_cq-contest/
Administrative requests: cq-contest-REQUEST@contesting.com
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