[CQ-Contest] Re: QST Line Scores

[David A. Pruett]

Back in the early seventies when I was a new ham (licensed 2-3 years) and 
starting to get very enthused about contesting, the QST contest writeups 
were a HUGE factor in increasing my knowledge.  I was fortunate that the 
library at community college I attended for the first few years after high 
school had a rather complete collection of QSTs for the prior fifteen years 
or so.  They were stored in a back room and the librarian would unlock the 
room and let me sit back there for hours digesting contest results.

What was it that attracted my interest - line scores?  Heck no!  First, it 
was pictures of contest stations; no, not stations with a DX40 and an 
NC300, but pictures of competitive stations like W3GRF, K1LPL/3, XE1IIJ, 
W7RM, etc.  It was always interesting to see what these guys were running, 
which gave me something to aspire to.  Second were the tables showing QSOs 
and mults (varied depending on the contest); again, showing me what was 
possible.  And finally, contest writeups which explained the contest - who 
beat who, and why; significant scores, antecdotes, etc.; much more than 
simple recitations of first, second and third places in each category.

Its been a number of years since I've read a contest writeup in a magazine 
which I truly enjoyed.  The CQWW writeups, IMHO, are better than the ARRL 
ones because K3EST is deeply involved in the contest and understands what 
went on.  I commend the ARRL recent writeups (particularly the on-line 
versions) by guest authors which have been a great improvement and will 
continue to get better as these writers gain experience (that is, assuming 
they don't burn out and quit).  Still there is room for improvement - IMHO 
there needs to be more pictures and more comparison breakdowns.  For 
example, the January VHF SS writeup lacked the traditional boxes with top 
QSOs and grids per band.  I'm not sure whether scoring info by band was 
available in the results - even if so, sorting through hundreds of scores 
is a lot of work for the reader when the author might be able to run a 
database query and format it into a table with little work.

I believe that an attractive, interesting article about the results of a 
contest has a place in QST.  I'm not so much against including line scores 
as I am a proponent of better use of space.  I'd prefer to *read about the 
contest* and opposed to going glassy-eyed over columns of data.

At the same time, we contesters need to get off our butts.  We need to 
submit more photos, stories, etc. about our contest efforts as material for 
the writeup authors to use.  And those of us who are capable of writing 
need to step up and volunteer to do the writeups.  N1ND's time is put to 
much better use making the contest results happen.

FWIW.

73,

Dave/K8CC