Hi Bart
I am looking forward to automation of the laborious distance calculations for
10 GHz & Up log entry- over many years I've got pretty accustomed to it but it
can certainly be daunting to newcomers to this event.
Just to clarify - is use of the new log submission app mandatory for this
contest or can we still submit by email as stated on the ARRL website?
As you are developing the automated scoring you may want to consider the
following points:
(1) The distance score for QSOs within a single 6 character grid can be quite
confusing. The ARRL distance calculator gives a distance of 0 km, then goes on
to say "The distance between two identical grid squares is arbitrarily set to
1.0 km". So I am now confused! But on top of this Rule 5.5 states that the
minimum distance for a QSO is 1 km and your recent post says we should round up
to the next highest integer. So presumably the minimum distance score for a
QSO in the 10 GHz and Up Contest must be 2 km. So some clarification of the
scoring for within-one-grid QSOs will be needed.
(2) There are some satisfying bragging rights associated with the best maximum
distance on each band. But on the highest frequency bands, it's not uncommon
for the maximum distances to be just a few kilometers and the QSOs to be made
within one 6-character grid or between adjacent 6-character grids. As the
actual distance for a QSO within a single grid can vary from 1 km to something
like 7 km or more (depending on latitude) and the actual distance between
adjacent grids can vary from 1 km to a somewhat larger number, an automated
calculation can unfairly assign several km to a 1km adjacent-grids QSO and 1
(or 2?) km to a 5 km single-grid QSO. The same issues apply to longer
distance QSOs across more than one grid boundary - they just aren't as obvious.
It may be necessary to provide some way to override the automated calculation
in order to ensure fairness with respect to the best-distance claims on the
higher bands, even if it really makes no noticeable difference to the overal
l scores, in order to encourage development of gear that works at greater
distances.
73,
Steve VE3SMA
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