[CQ-Contest] !0 meter lost logs

[Kennamer, Bill, K5FUV]

To all 10 Meter Contest participants:

First, I would like to offer my apology if your score was omitted from the 
10 meter Contest results. This is an inexcusable error, and it is my 
intention that this does not occur again.

When I became the manager of the Membership Services Department in late 
April, I immediately began to focus on the Contest Branch. I am aware of 
problems in the Branch. We are taking steps to prevent future problems, and 
some progress is being made.

We have had a problem with E-mail at HQ for some time. This problem is not 
exclusive to, or caused by the Contest Branch, and applies to more than just 
log submissions. Around the first of this year, attempts were made to sent 
up an auto responder and bypass the in-house system. The auto responder 
worked, but log gathering procedures did not. We found within only a few 
days of operation that something was wrong, and changed systems once again.

When I came to the department, my first objective was to see that we had a 
workable system to gather E-mailed logs. As of last weekend, we now have 
such a system in operation. It has redundancy, with a computer outside of 
the ARRL system also gathering the logs in combination with the in-house 
system. You should receive a response that your log has been received, and 
the log should be saved on two computers.

We have also instituted a program, effective with the ARRL DX CW Contest, of 
posting logs received on our Web site as soon as the database of received 
logs is completed. As we move further down the road, we hope to become 
current, with daily updates of logs received, however, it will be a few more 
months before we can catch up to that level.

Meanwhile we will be posting changes to the received logs list on the CQ 
Contest Reflector  as they occur.

Trey Garlough, N5KO, spent a week here in May reviewing the Contest Branch. 
His assessment ( and mine) is that many of the basic systems to do the job 
are already in place, but some procedures need to be changed. These changes 
are currently being made, and we are beginning to see results from these 
changes. However, due to lead times involved, it will be months before you 
will see them. Trey will be helping us with the auto responder, as well as 
other parts of the complete software system that will be installed in the 
coming months.

Other prominent contesters have volunteered services as well. We hope to 
have several changes coming on line by fall, especially with regard to log 
checking methodology.

I will apologize again for the problems with the ten meter contest. If you 
haven*t checked the results, they will be posted on our Web page later this 
afternoon. If your log is omitted, please send a copy of the log file and 
summary sheet to k5fuv at arrl.org.

Meanwhile, please bear with us as we put the planned changes into effect. 
Our aim is to get back to having the premier contest program in Amateur 
Radio. We know that's what you want and deserve, and we're going to make the 
extra effort to get it for you.

73,


Bill Kennamer K5FUV
Membership Services Manager
bkennamer at arrl.org

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