Have you ever noticed that contest results take so long to appear in
magazines that sometimes you can't remember whether or not you
actually operated the particular contest you are reading about at the
moment?
Many years ago I had a dream that we would be able to operate contests
and then see the final results immediately after the events were over.
This will not be achievable if we rely on QST as a delivery mechanism.
As you may be aware I have been doing some volunteer work for the
League over the past few years to automate the log collecting and
results tabulating process for ARRL contests. Based on the current
state of the art, here are the top three delay factors that keep us
from publishing the results for the Sweepstakes in a timely fashion:
1) 45 day lead time to publish articles in QST
2) 30 day log submission deadline
3) contest writeup and magazine article layout
If we eliminate #1 by publishing on the web and cut #2 from 30 to 15
days, then I believe we can *tranquilly* release the complete final
results of Sweepstakes within 30 days of the contest. In fact, last
year Tree N6TR advanced the log processing tools for Sweepstakes to
the point that we are now capable of producing the complete set of
line scores and top ten boxes and so forth within 30 minutes of the
log deadline. Why wait until June to read the magazine when you can
see the results on the web in December?
Toward this end in November 2001 I introduced a propsal to the folks
at ARRL HQ that the log submission deadline be cut from 30 days to 15
days, effective with the contest season beginning with the 2002
November Sweepstakes. Let me explain how I decided on 15 days as a
nice compromise between 10 minutes and 30 days.
Over the past couple of years I have noticed a trend in how contest
logs are submitted. There is one spike that occurs right after the
contest and another spike the occurs right before the log submission
deadline, and during the intervening weeks the robot becomes very
quiet. I believe the reason for this is that there is really very
little work to be done to your logs anymore -- they are already duped
and scored and everything right at the end of the contest!
Secondly, cutting the log submission deadline from 30 to 15 days gains
us back 15 additional days to get the results published. 15 days is a
lot when you are trying to meet a 30 day (or 15 day!) deadline for
publishing the results.
Thirdly, I like 15 days because it gives everyone two complete
weekends to deal with their logs (as if there is really anything that
needs to be done with them). This gives the guy who bolts off on a
business trip on the Monday morning after the contest two weekends to
do something.
Fourthly: submitting your log on time is part of the contest!
Additional data: over 90% of electronic SS logs were submitted in
Cabrillo format last year. The number of paper logs received is
declining every year, and at this point all of them can be descibed
more as "participant" class logs rather than "competitor" class logs.
The beauty of the web results is that these logs can be added to the
list as they dribble in if they are delayed by an anthrax scare or
whatever.
Further data point: of the 1800 WPX SSB logs received thus far by
N8BJQ, 1500 are in Cabrillo format. Please note that unlike the ARRL,
CQ does not *require* electronic logs to be submitted in Cabrillo
format. However, this is not stopping people from submitting Cabrillo
logs anyways.
OK, so there you have the details of my proposal. The purpose of this
message is to solicit feedback from the contest community about how a
15 day log submission deadline would affect *you*. Please feel free
to write me privately, or to post back to the cq-contest list itself
and make your opinion heard -- either way is fine with me.
Please limit your comments to how this change would have affected
*you* personally in a contest during a recent year or how it might
affect you in the future. I am not interested in hearing hypothetical
situations such as "but, but, but, what if someone operates the
contest from the USVI, then goes on a 16 day Carnival Cruise
immediately after the contest, and during the cruise an asteroid falls
out of the sky and disables the communications system rendering the
onboard internet cafe inoperable?" I can think of plenty of
hypothetical situations of this nature on my own, as well as plenty
non-hypothetical ones. Earlier this year I spent 42 days in VP8/F,
VP8/Sand and VP8/G, and I can tell you that I could have beaten the 15
day deadline from any of these places had it been necessary. What I
am looking for is *practical* feedback about problems that the 15 day
deadline could possible create in your own personal situation.
Now is your chance to be heard! Let's hear it!
One final comment: I know people are bumming about losing line scores
in QST -- I'm a little sad too. However, I'm really excited about the
opportunity this gives us to make some lemonade out of the situation
and make work towards the ultimate dream of realtime results at the
end of the contest.
You can say what you want about about WRTC, whether it's fair or
not, or whether the stations were equal or not, whether it proves
anything or not, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, but the OH boys
were handing out the trophies the day after the contest, and in my
book this is totally cool!
Thanks for listening, and feel free to repost this message to your
local contest club mailing list.
--Trey, N5KO & HC8N
|