[CQ-Contest] Casual contesting

[Ford Peterson]

Promote or perish!  Or should I say, publish or perish?

This thread serves to illustrate an important issue that effects myself and
every other constester, bar none.

I am, in terms of my ability to participate, a casual contester.  I rarely
place in the top 10 single op entries for my class.  SOLP.  Two years ago, I
attempted a run in the CQ WW contests.  My score was 14 or 15 down the list.
This year, I didn't even work the CQ contests for one important reason.  No
score gets published.  The ARRL has the means to publish all submitted
scores. No publish?  No participation!  It's that simple.

I compete with myself, not the rest of the world.  The rest of the world
simply sets the pace for me.  The rest of the world gets the awards, I get
the satisfaction of knowing how well I did based on the rest of the entries
in my category.  If the sponsor won't publish the score so I can find it,
I'm not going to participate.  This year, I handed out about 10 Qs in the CQ
contests because I had no interest in working like a dog only to have my
submitted log sent to somebody's recycle bin because it didn't come close to
placing in the contest.

If the top scoring stations want more participation, they better figure out
how to publish the scores of all participants.  Who says working all hours
of the day and night for two days makes me a "casual" contester?  Based on
where I live (Minnesota), my low band scores will never match the East Coast
boys and girls--not even close.  "But captain, I can't change the laws of
physics..."

Stated another way, if I am going to participate, I need a method of
comparing my score to the scores of those in the same situation as me.  On
topband, I compete with other LP stations in WI, MI, IA, NE, SD, ND, ID, WA.
I work 36 hours on a weekend and land 350 Qs, the East Coast boys and girls
will do 1000.  Guess who places?  If you guys want my Qs in your log, better
publish the scores...

Ford-N0FP
ford at cmgate.com


--
CQ-Contest on WWW:        http://lists.contesting.com/_cq-contest/
Administrative requests:  cq-contest-REQUEST at contesting.com