[CQ-Contest] Your thoughts on this one

[Zack Widup]

On Sun, 1 Dec 2002, Ron Notarius WN3VAW wrote:

> Is this for real?  I mean to say, I have no doubts that the email was
> received by K4XS, but is there any way to verify the accuracy of the email
> itself?
> 
> If it is on the level, I would probably confirm the QSO data... after the
> entry deadline for the contest has taken place.  I would also suggest that
> the log entry from the "XYZ" group be sent in with a note explaining what
> happened so that the stations worked would not be penalized due to missing
> information from the "XYZ" gang.
> 
> I hate like heck to risk discouraging youthful operators, but asking for a
> "fill" post contest like this has to be against the spirit, if not the
> letter, of the contest rules.  I'm nothing but sympathetic, but, well, no
> one ever said life is fair and sometimes them's the breaks.
> 

I believe that these young operators need to learn that things sometimes
go wrong and that you need to "roll with the punches" and learn how to
prevent such problems in the future. Life is not very often fair. They
also need to learn honesty and that if something is against the rules (as
this solicitation is), then don't do it.  I consider that far more
important than learning to have fun during a contest. 

I myself am still a little leery of computers for anything really
important.  At least the kind you can buy for your home (I certainly
wouldn't trust one for a life support system). My first contests were done
by logging with pencil and paper.  Except for contests, I still log other
QSO's with pen and paper and then transfer them to the computer.  I've
always dreaded a computer glitch wiping out my data.  A couple years ago
in an M/S effort which had an extra station as a mult station, one of the
computer log files got screwed up and we lost maybe 10 or 15 QSO's as a
result.  We just had to "roll with the punches".

73, Zack W9SZ