I was stunned to read the recently-released report from last year's LZ DX
contest and see that the judges in this contest had disallowed fully 40% of
the contacts I made in this contest last fall. In every other contest I
enter, I have a very low UBN rate. So how to explain a loss of 40% of
contacts? I knew during the contest that I was going to have a higher error
rate than normal because it was obvious that a significant number of the
stations I was working did not know the contest exchange (ITU zone) and were
likely giving me CQ zone numbers, sequence numbers, random numbers, or maybe
even their IQ. Unless I knew from the prefix of the station I was working
that the exchange was incorrect, I simply logged what was sent. And since I
only have a few ITU zones memorized, that wasn't a very effective correction
mechanism. But still--a 40% UBN rate???
Closer inspection of the UBN report appears to give some clues. While I
can't decipher the difference between "QSO OK" and "QSO VALID", it is
apparent that contacts are disallowed if the station worked is a unique call
or if the station worked does not submit a log. With all due respects to
the contest organizers, this is grossly unfair to entrants located a
significant distance from Bulgaria. While the "everybody can work everybody
else" format is to be applauded, this business of disallowing uniques and of
requiring confirmation via log submissions imposes a huge penalty on contest
entrants who are likely to attract a large number of casual operators or DX
chasers. To put it bluntly, there is no way in the future that I will waste
my time on this contest or others like it which impose such a penalty.
US and Canadian contesters may be interested to note that starting this fall
this contest (which happens the same weekend as sideband sweepstakes) will
move from being a CW contest to being a mixed mode contest. That ought to
create plenty of confusion for all the yodelers out there. (CU on the WARC
bands.)
Bruce, ZF2NT
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