[CQ-Contest] Dupes and computer logs

[n6tr at teleport.com]

K3BU writes:

"the point is that with computerized log, dupes are immaterial, logs 
get duped and rescored by another, bigger computer (we are encouraged 
to leave them in)"

For many years - I have worked to eliminate any dupe penalties for
electronic logs - and as far as I know - there aren't any contests
actually assessing this penalty.  Not only does it make sense, it
is a lot easier.  A study of the new Cabrillo format will reveal 
that no way exists to indicate that a dupe is "marked" as a dupe.

It is much too much work for a software program to figure out if
a dupe is marked or not.  Instead - it should just ignore it and
move on.  

For all of the software I have written for log checking - there have
been no penalties for dupes.  They are simply ignored.  I have done
my best to influence other authors of log checking software to do
the same. 

So - let's put this issue to bed - you are not being penalized for
leaving dupes in your electronic log.

However, I do not think this logic should also be used to remove
the current penalties for busted callsigns.  There needs to be a
penalty for this for several reasons - but here is one that often gets
ignored:

If there is no penalty for busted information - there is no reason
to not guess when you don't know.  Let's say I know a callsign is
either W7WSY or W7WHY, but I am not sure.  I have three choices:

1. Enter W7WSY.
2. Enter W7WHY.
3. Don't enter anything because I am not sure.

We would like to encourage #3 - since the QSO wan't sucessfully 
finished (I am thinking of the case where W7WHY didn't stick around
to respond to the request for his callsign to be sent again).

Without a penalty - the station is better off doing #1 or #2.  If
he gets it wrong - no big deal - he has the same result as #3.  Half
of the time, he will be right and gets credit for the QSO.

However, if we are going to encourage #3 to be the proper choice, the
penalty will help.  If you aren't sure - then don't log it and you
will be better off than guessing.  Even if you are right half the
time, your score will suffer.  

Tree


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