Contest Excuse Quotient

[n6xi at tss.com]

The recent traffic on radio vs. spouses prompts me to suggest the following:

With the contest season starting up, perhaps we need a new performance metric -
the Contest Excuse Quotient, to be included in all contest score listings: 

  You get 1 point per minute lost due to a reparable equipment problem during
  the contest.  Irreparable problems are 100 points if there is a redundant item
  available, else 250 points.  

  Tower climbing counts 3 points per foot (US only) within 6 hours of contest
  start and 5 points per foot during the contest.  Outside the US it is 10 and 15
  points per meter.  Per metre in the UK.  

  You get 100 points for being married and another 100 if your spouse is in
  town on a contest weekend.  If you or your spouse delivers a baby during the
  contest, count 500 points.  Kids under 12 are worth 50 points each for
  existence and presence.  Teenagers are worthless.

  Cold: 100 points per sinus blocked throughout the contest plus 100 points
  per box of tissue.  Flu:  100 points per degree F over normal (200 points
  per degree C).  Broken bone:  200 points except in sending hand which counts
  400 points or off-hand 300 points (for computer loggers only). 
  Doctor visits 500 points if your return before end of contest, 1000 points
  if hospitalized.  Life-threatening illness contracted and diagnosed during
  contest or 3 days prior, 3000 points (doctor's affidavit required).

  Power failure during contest: 10 points per hour (100 points per hour in
  NA Sprint).  Line noise: 2 points per dB over noise floor per hour (20/hour
  in Sprint).

  New RFI complaints: 1 point per dollar of threatened lawsuit.  Complaints
  that don't threaten suit or from previously encountered pre-litigants don't
  count.  

  Bad conditions count 10 points per dB below normal of the average of all the
  14.100 beacon stations iff they hurt you more than your buddy because of the
  nature of your equipment, antennas, operating style or habits of personal hygiene.

  100 point bonus if you travelled at least 1000 miles away from home during the 3
  days prior to the contest or if you worked (at your job) more than 80 hours in
  the prior week.  

  Each doorbell or telephone call you respond to during the contest is 5 points
  unless it is an RFI complaint which is covered under separate rule above.  ...

Contest Excuse Quotients (XQs) are used as follows:  

  Adjusted Gross Score = Raw Score * (1 + XQ/1000)

All score listings in the magazines are by AGS.  Raw Score may be reported if
space permits and there is lots of advertising in the current issue.  Contest
sponsors are encouraged to establish categories such as Single Operator/No
Excuse, Multi Operator/Mega Excuses, etc.  Top XQ boxes will be published in
the sponsoring journals.  NCJ can sponsor an annual Max Cumulative Excuses
award.  CT, NA and TR will require modification to track Real-Time Excuse
Accumultion and to calculate and display AGS.

We will need the following new Q Signals:  

  QXQ?      "What is your excuse?"
  QXQ nnnn  "My excuse quotient is nnnn."
  QXQ 0     "No excuse, Sir."

So, what's your excuse?

73,

/Rick N6XI

>From barry at w2up.wells.com (Barry Kutner)  Sun Sep 11 23:10:25 1994
From: barry at w2up.wells.com (Barry Kutner) (Barry Kutner)
Date: Sun, 11 Sep 94 22:10:25 GMT
Subject: UV degradation and plastics
Message-ID: <3BBisc1w165w at w2up.wells.com>

Just thought I'd pass along my experience with a few plastic boxes I've 
used outdoors to keep connectors relatively dry (in addition to the usual 
methods).
Tupperware becomes brittle and cracks in one season!
Johnson & Johnson Baby wipes container looks as good as new after 3 
years! This container is marked on the bottom with the number 2 inside 
the little triangle (here we recycle nrs 1 thru 5), and also HDPE, which 
I presume is the abbreviation of the chemical name.
73 Barry

--

Barry N. Kutner, W2UP       Usenet/Internet: barry at w2up.wells.com
Newtown, PA                 Packet Radio: W2UP @ WB3JOE.#EPA.PA.USA.NA
                            Packet Cluster: W2UP >K2TW (FRC)
.......................................................................


>From peterj at netcom.com (Peter Jennings)  Mon Sep 12 00:44:30 1994
From: peterj at netcom.com (Peter Jennings) (Peter Jennings)
Date: Sun, 11 Sep 1994 16:44:30 -0700
Subject: QRM Eliminator
Message-ID: <199409112344.QAA03849 at netcom13.netcom.com>

>
> Can anyone tell me where to get some information on the S.E.M.
> QRM Eliminator-MarkII that was reviewed in the PVRC Newsletter
> by Fred, K3ZO?  It apparently uses an auxillary noise antenna and
> can phase out locally generated noise at the rcvr input.
>

It is sold by   SEM
                8 Fort William
                Head Road
                Douglas
                Isle of Man
                U.K.

Phone: +44 624 662131   (dial 011 first from North America)

The current price is œ98.50  (that's UK pounds if your characters vary).

Peter


--                                            peterj at netcom.com
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>From oo7 at astro.as.utexas.edu (Derek Wills)  Sun Sep 11 20:15:32 1994
From: oo7 at astro.as.utexas.edu (Derek Wills) (Derek Wills)
Date: Sun, 11 Sep 94 19:15:32 GMT
Subject: the /125 thing
Message-ID: <9409120015.AA17909 at astro.as.utexas.edu>

Dunno whether many of the folks here paid much attention to the
ARRL /125 thing, but I thought it was quite revealing.  Some of 
the officials associated with emergency coordination sure don't 
have much idea of how to handle a pile-up, and I wonder how useful 
they are directing emergency nets on HF or getting emergency
traffic through under poor conditions.  I also heard an Official
Observer who should have sent himself an OO notice for the quality
of his audio.

I thought the best ops were, on average, the DX Field Reps - they 
have all worked 300+ countries and know something about pile-ups
and weak signals, although some of them were obviously unused to
being on the hot end of a pile-up.

The whole thing convinced me even more that when the chips are down 
and conditions are rough, the best person to have on the other end 
is a DXer or contester.  Of course, I should really post this in a 
non-contesting group where contesters are continually being vilified 
for trashing the bands during contests - in fact, of course, we are 
practising for emergency work.   I'd rather have KR0Y et al on the
other end than some of these well-meaning wannabe policemen who are
involved in the emergency services.  OK, I'm sure some of them are
very competent etc (and other phrases to deflect libel suits...).

Derek AA5BT, G3NMX
oo7 at astro.as.utexas.edu