On 01/29/2018 01:09 PM, Trent Sampson wrote:
Mandatory recording - when this was put to a VK Facebook group when it
was introduced several part timers said they will not be bothering in
future - bang immediate reaction - and I have not seen them enter a log
since.
IMHO, the root problem is that there are multiple types of contesters,
ranging from the all-out contest-station go-for-the-gold top-gun
entrants to the casual make-a-few-contacts-for-fun masses. Scoring
rules and requirements appropriate for one type may seem onerous and
ridiculous, or naive and insufficient, to the others.
I don't have hard data, but my impression is that the majority of
stations heard making Qs in a contest do not bother to enter a log at
all. Others enter a log, but comments such as "only had an hour to
play" imply that they weren't really trying to "win", but entered their
log just to help the scoring process and maybe see how they did compared
to last year, their friends, etc.
With my own very modest LP-and-wire station, I have never expected to
win anything, and never viewed my log submissions as "competing". I've
been tempted to just send in a log as a checklog, or not at all;
certainly more likely if the rules seem too complicated and too much work.
For us casual contesters, the 3830 system provides an alternate way to
submit your results and see how it compares with others. Of course all
scores are submitted on the honor system, and it would be trivial to
cheat. Still, it seems to work fine.
Perhaps contest organizers could recognize that there are at least two
classes of participants - those who are competing for top honors, and
those who are just having fun, applying different rules and requirements
appropriate for each class. Recordings, lockout devices, stringent
off/on-times, and such might apply to COMPETITORs, but not to CASUALs.
If you then submit your log in the COMPETITOR class, you better have met
all of the related rules or you may be DQed. The top scores are the
Winners, and the rest are the Losers.
If you choose to submit a log as CASUAL, you still have to meet the
associated but simpler rules of course, and you can then see how your
score compared with last year's or friends' or other stations like
yours. But you won't win anything, and you won't be a loser either.
You'll just have fun.
Maybe a CASUAL entrant will even get a better score than a COMPETITOR.
If so, you might want to think about trying "for real" next year as a
COMPETITOR, and get whatever the rules require for you to do so.
73,
/Jack de K3FIV
_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
|