Well stated, Randy. I am sure there are things that the committee sees that
most of us are unaware of. I believe that most of the cq-contest subscribers
do want a fair contest and I am glad to see that you read the various
comments. The rules should be easy to understand and the contest still needs
to be fun or why do it. It is quite a challenge!
John KK9A
To: <cq-contest@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Proposed contest rules
From: "Randy Thompson K5ZD" <k5zd@charter.net>
Reply-to: k5zd@charter.net
Date: Sun, 24 May 2015 20:04:33 -0000
The discussions on this reflector have clearly demonstrated the challenge
for contest administrators and rule development.
There are really 2 (maybe 3) classes of participants in a contest. There
are the guys who spend the time and money to travel/build/operate with the
intent of being competitive at the world, continent or national level.
Let's call them the "competitor" class. Then there are the rest of the
participants who just want to work stations and have fun. They like seeing
their score in the results and enjoy beating their locals or friends. Let's
call them the "participant" class. (The third group might be people who get
on but don't submit logs.)
There is a desire among the competitor class that they are competing on a
level playing field. They are willing to put up with shorter deadlines,
complex rules, and even recordings if it helps the log checkers do their job
better.
The participant class sees all of this extra verbage in the rules (and on
contest reflector discussion) and is put off by it. Perhaps to the point of
skipping the event. This is not good for anyone.
Some of the proposed rule changes were directed at the most serious
competitors. As we saw here in the reflector, people would not read or
understand the details of the rule and assume that everyone had to log exact
frequencies, or record the contest, etc. That was never the intent.
Should we create a special section of the rules that is focused only on the
top 3 or top 5 scores at the World and Continent levels for the major
categories? Those who wanted to be considered competitors would follow the
special rules. Those who just wanted to participate and have fun could
ignore them.
Thanks to computers all submitted logs are checked in a consistent way. The
only purpose of the competitor class rules would be to provide tools that
direct behavior and enable better enforcement.
Watch any major running marathon race and you will see a small group of
'professional' racers who go out first and are watched closely (including
drug testing). Then there are the tens of thousands of participants who
just want to enjoy the satisfaction of completing the race. They run for
their own personal reasons.
Is it time to create this concept for radio contesting? If we do it right,
the decision competitor/participant will be completely a decision of the
entrant when they operate and submit their entry. This would not change the
game over the air for anyone.
Randy, K5ZD
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