[CQ-Contest] CW SS Error Report Error Report - K6LA

[KWIDELITZ at delphi.com]

        I've got good news and bad news regarding the log checking in the 
        1997 CW Sweepstakes. The good news is you can get your error list 
        from  Billy Lunt at ARRL. The bad news is that in 13 of  30  QSOs 
        marked as errors, tapes confirmed I did not make an error (a  43% 
        error rate on the error rate.) In fact, in 3 of 10 cases where  I 
        was  penalized for a wrong PREC, QST listed the PREC as I  logged 
        it. The "master" on the error list had the PREC wrong!
        
        I  had a total of 32 QSOs removed from my log. 10 were for  wrong 
        PREC,  18 were for bad CHECK and 4 were for miscopied SEC. I  was 
        pleased  I had no busted calls or wrong serial #. I was  able  to 
        listen to the first 30 QSOs marked as errors on tape. I use a VCR 
        to record both radios in sync, 6 hours to a tape. The fifth  tape 
        with the last 2 errors wasn't recorded. Either I forgot to change 
        the last tape or forgot to push record.
        
        Of  the 30, I was able to confirm from tape that I  had,  without 
        any  doubt,  correctly copied the PREC 7 times and  the  CHECK  6 
        times. It is interesting to note that of those 13 QSOs improperly 
        removed  from  my log, 7 were multi-ops and 5 of  those  were  on 
        CHECKS. I suspect the operators were sending their own  different 
        checks, because some weren't even close to what the error  report 
        said they should be. 
        
        Not  every error in my report was the fault of the log  checking. 
        In  two  cases  I asked for a fill and then  a  confirmation  and 
        received  a false confirmation of what I copied on the  fill.  In 
        one  case I asked for a confirmation of serial #, but still  blew 
        the  section.  In another case I was sent a dit dit dit  dit  dah 
        dah,  and  recorded  it as 4 instead of asking  for  a  fill  and 
        getting a 3. 
        
        The  point  of this missive is to state that as much  as  I  want 
        tight  log checking and the benefit of learning from  my  errors, 
        there has to be a feedback loop to reduce error checking  errors. 
        The  only  thing  that  comes to my mind as  a  solution  is  for 
        operators  who  are  gunning for the top  10  boxes  to  register 
        recordings  of  contests by a log due date.  Error  reports  (UBN 
        reports)  should  be  generated and made  available  as  soon  as 
        possible.  Each  operator then has the opportunity to  listen  to 
        their tapes and flag error report errors. The audio of the errors 
        can be submitted for adjudication with random testing against the 
        original  recordings  to  avoid digital  fraud.  Now,  the  first 
        reaction to this is "who is going to spend all the time  checking 
        this  stuff." Well, each operator who records his contests  will, 
        cause why record them if its not going to help confirm your score 
        and  if  you're not going to listen to learn from  your  mistakes 
        when  they  are  pointed out to you. If 50  operators  submit  15 
        errors  each, that is 750 tightly edited QSOs. At a minute  each, 
        that  is 12.5 hours of listening time. Not an enormous effort  to 
        significantly raise the confidence in the results. 
        
        In  my particular case, the 13 QSOs that were improperly  removed 
        from  my  log wouldn't have made a difference in the standings.
        I  am sure that will not be the situation with other logs. 

        You can bet I'll be asking for more fills on PREC and CHECK next
        year.


73. Ken, K6LA - Ken Six Los Angeles, KWIDELITZ at DELPHI.COM
                ex-AB6FO


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