W2RU - Bud Hippisley wrote:
>Michael Keane K1MK wrote:
>
>
>
>>MARAC adopted W0QE's list of 2x4 county abbreviations for the County
>>Hunters CW Contest because the managers of that contest do have to
>>deal with all 3076 counties being in play at once.
>>
>>Whether such a unique-id is of value in regional QSO parties or on
>>weekends when several QSO parties are held is up to the sponsors to decide.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>I get in the state QSO parties primarily for the fun of chasing county
>multipliers -- maybe someday leading to a County Hunters certificate.
>As soon as I encountered my first "multi-state" QSO Party weekend, I
>felt the need for exactly such a system as this 2x4 approach. I believe
>this common format is much more than being simply "of value" for the
>circumstances Mike suggests in his second paragraph -- I believe it's
>*imperative*, and represents a major step on the way to eliminating the
>crazy variations and asymmetries in in-state / out-of-state contest
>exchanges that have cropped up over the years.
>
>
It is going to be a *hard* sell to both the contesters and sponsors
of state QSO parties that it is imperative to them to change their
designators so that it is convenient for county hunters only!
>Admittedly, there's a short-term "conversion problem' on voice modes
>while we figure out how to best bridge the gap between the spoken county
>name and its typed or handwritten 4-character representation in the log
>entry process, but I'm confident that software methods for converting
>even mis-spelled and mis-typed county names and partial county names to
>the right 4 characters in the 2x4 County field are less complex to
>implement than many of the *existing* features of today's contest
>logging programs.
>
>
Are you aware of what is involved in doing this? A lot of effort on
the part of software designers-usually gratis. All the contestants
having to learn new county abbreviations. Discouraging casual
contacts.Software becoming obsolete when writers decide they no longer
want to update it. A whole new set of checks for the log checkers; and
the last thing I want to do is alienate more log checkers! Changes that
have an *actual* effect on the parties are implemented with great
trepidation. A change that grants no real benefit would earn me many
enemies, probably irritate a fair number of participants into becoming
former participants, and not add one thing to the party but extra work
for already overworked volunteers, is indeed a very hard sell.
- 73 de Mike KB3EIA -
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