[CQ-Contest] Exisiting Penalty System is Working Very Well

[Jimk8mr at aol.com]

In a message dated 9/5/00 12:07:51 PM Eastern Daylight Time, ae327 at lafn.org 
writes:

> On CW, six of the top ten SOAB-HP entrants, including the top two,
>  lost 1% or less of their QSOs in the log-checking. This shows
>  that the top competitors are playing the same game, by the same
>  rules, and playing it well.
>  
>  This is a significant improvement from past years when certain
>  "winners" had 25% or more, of the callsigns in their logs copied
>  incorrectly!



The improved log checking of recent years has indeed put a proper fear into 
all of us, and a proper respect for getting things right.  The numbers above 
show that those who win are not winning by careless or creative logging.

But I think this would be true if there was no penalty beyond loss of the bad 
qso.  And I think there is a downside to this fetish for punishing those who 
get things wrong.

An eternally recurring topic among contesters is  "How do we get people into 
contesting?" .  One of the standard answers is "Invite them to participate in 
a multiop effort at your station".  Which is good advice for getting new 
people.  But if you are at all serious about the contest, can you afford to 
take this advice? 

We all know how newbies can mess things up.  They may have never operated a 
contest, they're nervous, they don't have familiarity with contest calls, 
they have never seen your computer logging program. It's not surprising that 
they might bust a few callsigns, or think they have worked someone when they 
really haven't . So you'd like to give them time on a band, most likely at an 
off-peak hour. They can make some qsos, and they can make some mistakes.  But 
can you risk letting them operate if each bad qso takes away 3 other qsos? 

I think loss of the bad qso is enough penalty to keep the serious guys in 
line and to keep the competition honest.  Penalties beyond that are a relic 
from the era of hand checked logs, and should be dropped.


Jim   K8MR 


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