[CQ-Contest] CQ CERTIFICATES--follow up

[John Brosnahan]

Just a few final thoughts.  I received quite a few nice notes about 
my posting.  Some of the replies were on the reflector but most of 
them were private notes.  I appreciate the kind words and will try to
respond to them as time permits.

My intent of the first note was to let everyone know that CQ, Bob Cox,
and the CQWW contest committee were all operating with due diligence,
trying to do the very best job they could and that the delays were
all my fault--but it wasn't because I didn't care or wasn't working on
the certificates.

I had one phone call yesterday stating that the caller's wife printed
certificates for people and had tried to use the WordPerfect database
and template functions that I have been using and found them to be buggy 
and had to switch over to another program to do the certs.  So maybe 
I was destined to failure from the very beginning by my choice of software .

I have always been very active in volunteer activities such as this
certificate project--been president of a number of radio and computer
clubs and I've been editor of a number of club newsletters over the
years.  So I thought I knew what I was getting into--quite a bit of work to
get it set up but then, once it was running, it should only take a part of a 
weekend, two times per year.  And I had a good friend who did most of 
the original WordPerfect setup of the database and templates.  He DID
complain a lot about how buggy things were--but I figured he was just
unhappy that I had talked him into helping!

So this was frustrating because it was not working smoothly and I had
become involved in a total overload situation on many personal and 
professional fronts and just wanted to get the certs done and out of the 
way.  And yet the harder I worked at it the worse it got.  The time I put 
into the project should have done two DECADES worth of certs--not 
1.1 years worth.

The bottom line is that most people are very tolerant of delays if they
understand what is going on and know that the problem is being worked 
on.  Most people just don't want to feel "blown off".  So my note was to
let everyone know that their efforts in submitting scores were appreciated,
and that CQ and the CQWW staff are working very hard to make the 
CQWW contest even better, as evidenced by their enormous efforts on
the UBN front.

73  John  W0UN

BTW  A number of people have commented about how much they have 
enjoyed the various posting I have made in previous years on antenna 
issues.  The lack of postings during the past year or so is also a measure 
of just how busy I have gotten.  My plan is to expand the Alpha/Power web 
site to include a number of personal postings on issues relating to antennas 
and amplifiers.  So, give me a couple of months, and I will start adding some
useful information on our web site.  Information gleaned from trying to
help our customers solve their own problems.  I have found that about
half of the "amplifier" problems that are reported are actually system
problems in other parts of the station, and I hope to be able to help
everyone (not just Alpha customers) to be able to diagnose some of 
these issues.


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