BS7H complaints

[Waltk at PICA.ARMY.MIL]

Derek writes:

>Well, there's only enough room for the ops to stand on one leg
>on this country, you know.    It gets pretty tiring operating
>like that.

Did they take lessons from Ian Anderson?

-k2wk (soon to be: "the ham formerly known as k2wk") new call: W2 or W6ITO

>From John Allyn <jallyn at airdata.com>  Wed Apr 12 00:42:00 1995
From: John Allyn <jallyn at airdata.com> (John Allyn)
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 95 16:42:00 PDT
Subject: Another log bites the dust
Message-ID: <2F8B1452 at wddmssmtp.nwest.airdata.com>


I had a similar thing happen in the early 90's when I was a very close 
second for the entire US in the Phone Sweepstakes.  In my case they 
COMPLETELY forgot to list me at all!!!!  Then, after asking them to explain 
what happened Billy Lunt and his cohorts said it was just an honest mistake. 
 I asked them if they would at least publish an announcement in the next QST 
so I could get some credit for being second in the US.

The response was that space in QST is too valuable and it wasn't worth it. I 
protested up the chain and finally got  K1ZZ President of ARRL to authorize 
it, however it took many persuasive phone calls and he was reluctant to do 
it.

As it turns out, upon further investigation, this has happened to many 
people. Many are those with lower scores, and so it really doesn't get their 
attention at all.  I further discovered that Billy Lunts group handles ALL 
of the ARRL contest logs with basically two people. If you consider that 
they are doing the ARRL 160 one month, the ARRL DX Contests the next month, 
the Novice Roundup the next month, Field Day the next, and so on, they don't 
even have the time to scrutinize the logs very well, let alone being able to 
keep track of what they do have. I'll bet someone could send in a big score 
bogus log of random calls and it would get listed, virtually without any 
changes!

The ARRL finally admitted that in the final compilation, all logs are put 
into the computer and prioritized automatically with out any final scrutiny 
by the contest committee.

In my case, a computer operator entered my logs erroneously, and my score 
didn't show up in the final compilation. Nobody checked the computers 
output, and the results simply went to press to meet the QST deadline. Then 
on to the Novice Roundup for next month!!!  Ever noticed that QST grinds the 
results out in just a few months?  A far cry from CQ, which takes nealy a 
year!

I've since decided not to waiste my time with ARRL contests. Iv'e limited my 
contest activity to CQ WW DX and CQ WW 160M. There more fun anyway!

John
W7XR
 ----------
From: owner-cq-contest
To: cq-contest
Subject: Another log bites the dust
Date: Tuesday, April 11, 1995 6:00PM

This is getting to be a regular occurrence for me.  I just got the May QST
and flipped to the SS results.  I was sorta bummed when I saw that my CW
score was knocked down from a preliminary 2nd place to 6th place...  but
still in the top ten.  Then I go to the SSB results only to find that my log
has been omitted.    It would've been second in IL low power.   I think this
brings the total to 4 logs lost or misprinted in the past 3 years, one of
which was a top ten score.  Two of these mistakes have been in the past four
months.

When I called Billy back in late January / early February to find out why my
log was omtiied from the IARU results (yes... another mistake),  I went on 
to
ask him if he had my logs for both modes of SS.  I sure don't remember there
being a negative response to my question or I would've corrected the problem
back then.  Each time I send in a log, I send a stamped addressed postcard
for them to send back as confirmation, as I'm sure many people do.   I have
never failed to get it back signed by someone indicating that everything was
received okay.

Another bothersome thing that the ARRL does.  When a mistake is made, they
wait until the results for the following years' contest to come out before
they publish any corrections.  That means that it's a year and a half after
the original contest.   Then when they're finally published, they're  buried
at the end of the contest commentary in smal print.  Who cares about a
contest that occurred 1994 in when it's 1996?  I sure don't want to wait for
a full year after the original results came out for my score to be
recognized!   I think QST should follow along the lines of CQ.    CQ
 publishes their corrections in the contest column in a neat little box with
bold print usually within a few months after the fact.   Take a look at page
114 of the Febuary CQ.  A good place for QST's correction box would be on 
the
"contest calendar" page, and, like CQ,  should be done within a few months
after the results have been published.    Thoughts?  <-----  (reply direct)

I know mistakes happen and I know I'm not the only one who has had them.
 However, how many people have had 5 logs messed up in the past 3 years (by
both CQ and the ARRL)?  I think it's more like 7, but I can only think of 5
off the top of my head.  I can only hope that the log for my apparent first
place, North American record setting effort in the recent WPX SSB contest
doesn't get lost or somehow misprinted.  I'm personally hand delivering it 
to
the CQ booth at Dayton.

CU in the Sultans of Shwing suite Thursday night in Stouffers.

Paul  WX9E

>From jbl at levin.MV.COM (Joel B Levin)  Sun Apr 16 16:44:33 1995
From: jbl at levin.MV.COM (Joel B Levin) (Joel B Levin)
Date: Sun, 16 Apr 1995 11:44:33 -0400
Subject: Surprise Awards
Message-ID: <199504161544.LAA06178 at mv.mv.com>

At 01:42 PM 4/15/95 CDT, w9sz at prairienet.org wrote:
>I got a certificate from the ARRL, "first place QRP-portable, Illinois."
>Turns out I was the ONLY QRP-portable in 9-land!
>
>And I almost didn't send in my log!

How true.  I got my Tech+ in the spring of '92 (why plus? I figured that if
I'd done it once before -- I was KN7YEG in 1964 -- I could do it again) and
was on the air just about as soon as my ticket arrived, mostly on 80 (until
I got a mike hooked up anyhow) with my flea market FT101EE.

I had never heard of contests till I started reading QST, and then K2TE
brought photocopies of official blank log and dupe sheets for SS to a club
meeting.  I said "what the heck," turned on the rig during the CW/SS and
signed as N1MNF/T.
I think I got maybe a couple dozen contacts sticking of course to the novice
bands; then about 110 contacts in the Phone SS on 10 meters only (again of
course), all on my own without any help.  That was so much fun I sent for
official 10 meter contest log sheets and entered that as well.

It was to my complete surprise that a number of months later I got three
certificates for winning the NH section in all three contests in the /T
category.  Well, I was the only one in that category in NH who sent in logs.
Maybe I was the only one who noticed the rule about novice/techs signing
with a suffix.

By the time the certificates came I was already hooked.  The following May I
had a new call sign, and I have a better radio, a better dipole, and I now
log with a computer.  But the unexpected wallpaper was a huge encouragement
and a very happy surprise.

>Just shows to go you...

Heh.

             73 / JBL
                  KD1ON
                  jbl at levin.mv.com  or  levin at bbn.com


>From George Cook <george at epix.net>  Sun Apr 16 21:14:43 1995
From: George Cook <george at epix.net> (George Cook)
Date: Sun, 16 Apr 1995 16:14:43 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Poision D'Avril
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.950416160145.14603A-100000 at grape.epix.net>

The following is my official log results for the Poinonus Fish thingy on 
April 1 1995

I hererby claimmyself winner soley on the basis that I am the only FRC 
member that has posted a score.  Thus I must be the winner.

Total Q's =  Over 1 million foriegn and domestic
Total Mults = 329 * 6  bands + 77 ARRL sections * 6 bands 2436
Score total 2436000000
Equipment 486 DX 66 w/ CD rom
Logging program CT
Cheat Program Buckmasters to CT interface

Summary why bother turning on the rig when you can import calls right off 
a CD rom???

High point contest only took 20 minutes with new CPU and we had barely 
any TVI complaints from the Nieghbors.

Low point Was unable to get BS7H into log no matter how hard to try.  
Signal was much to watery (BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!)

Looking forward Can't wait to run contest next year with a pentium class 
machine that is better at math than my 10 year old kid.

If there were any rules I did my damndest to break them.
Geroge C. Cook

*************************************************
* George Cook   AA3JU  Bangor, PA  FN21         *
* george at peach.epix.net  AA3JU at N3IQD.EPA.USA.NA *
* If you're not FRC remember:...............    *
* .......There's no shame in being 2nd best!    *
*************************************************