It's going on 4AM...I have an early meeting in a few hours, but each time
my head hits the pillow, "The Perfect Contest" keeps working like an
Insomnia pill ;-(.
Hopefully, a few of the issues raised in some direct emails will also be
addressed herein. Many of these pertained to involvement by "Casual
Contesters", so this got me to thinking about "The Perfect Contest" in a
different way.
VENUE -
Is "The Perfect Contest" meant to be like the Olympics, SuperBowl, Grand
Prix, Daytona 500, etc., or more like the ARRL SS or FD (where a great
number of Casual once-a-year" contesters/participants "drop by" to try and
work all sections in-between mowing the lawn or dealing with items on their
Honey-Do lists? Ooops...sorry...Field Day is NOT a contest, but rather an
"Event". Umh, I still can't figure out why FD listed under "Contests" on
the ARRL website :-)
If we are talking a Daytona 500 type event, then the Johnny-Come-Lately's
with their homebrew go-carts should not even come near the track. Try and
get on the track of a major event without "Registering"!!! I'll bet there
are but a teenie weenie number of contesters, serious or casual, who do not
have an Internet connection and a web browser. Registration could take
less than 30 seconds. Gimme a break. If "The Perfect Contest" is meant
to be the Creme de la Creme of contesting events, I don't recall seeing
Joe-Blow "Casual Skier" going down the slopes in the Winter Olympics next
to the formally registered skiers who have are wearing a NUMBER. There are
umpteen other contests for the Casual ops to participate in almost weekly.
On the other side of the coin, if "The Perfect Contest"is a free-for-all
and open to anyone including those who want to spend a few minutes and then
pull the plug, perhaps the main players get a 6 character/digit cryptic
entry number to use in the exchange, but the causal guy or gal just sends
"CASUAL" (software logging modules would have a 6 character/digit maximum
width in this field :-)
Regardless of who the players are or how they get on the contesting track,
EVERYONE still needs to RTFR for ANY contest before they play. Rules RULE.
FORMAT -
Is "The Perfect Contest" a single mode event (like CW), or are there also
SSB, RTTY, PSK31, or MIXED MODE versions? (NOTE: I think I know N3BB's
answer to this :-) Would there be:
1. The Perfect Contest - W/VE Domestic Edition
2. The Perfect Contest - DX + W/VE "International" Edition
3. The Perfect Contest - DX Only - NON-W/VE Edition
4. The Perfect Contest - Beginners Edition
5. The Perfect Contest - Free-For-All Edition
etc., etc. ???
EXCHANGE & LOG CHECKING -
So many possibilities already on the table. I advocate ditching any RS or
RST. Those with hearing problems who want these left in might consider an
MFJ Signal Enhancer or some other audio widget device to help with their
handicaps. RS and RST should have gone the way of the Edsel decades ago, IMHO.
Here's a real Paradigm Shift option for consideration vs. a "skill
building" based exchange: Ditch EVERYTHING in the exchange except for
sending "EE" or "R" ("CFM" would be too long). This would enable much
higher QSO rates for all participants!!!
Another Paradigm Shift would be to take the old school A, B, C, D, F letter
grading approach rather than "Pass vs. Fail". Currently, if there are ANY
errors in an exchange, you get whacked. So why not "partial credit" based
upon how many characters you have copied correctly? Educators should love
this one :-) And how many Sporting events penalize one player because
another player is the one who screwed up? In other words, if the guy on
the other end of YOUR exchange is having a "bad hair day", why in Hades
should you get whacked for it??? Something to chew on, folks.
SCORING -
Try this Paradigm Shift...why not get rid of all these "wimpy" score totals
for beating your brains out for hours? IMHO, I like the concept of 100,000
POINTS-PER-QSO...you make 1,000 Q's and end up with ONE-HUNDRED MILLION
POINTS (now that's my kinda contest :-) Just think how much nicer that
.pdf certificate you print on your own color printer will look with two
extra commas in the score total. Yeah.
LOG SUBMITTAL -
I think "Real Time Scoring" has arrived. If all participants are tied into
the Sponsor's "Central Contest Computer", as soon as the contest is over,
then all participant's "logs" are ALREADY IN THE SYSTEM. There is no
reason why final results can not be available, like IMMEDIATELY. Once
again, how many sporting events require everyone to wait even 24 hours to
get the results? No chance here for anyone to screw around with logs.
So many options for making "The Perfect Contest" the "Purrrrrfect" Cat's Meow.
73...
Rick, K6VVA
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