[CQ-Contest] making lemonade (was: ARRL report on line scores decision)

[Gary Ferdinand W2CS]

<<SNIP>>
>
> OK, so there you have the details of my proposal.  The purpose of this
> message is to solicit feedback from the contest community about how a
> 15 day log submission deadline would affect *you*.  Please feel free
> to write me privately, or to post back to the cq-contest list itself
> and make your opinion heard -- either way is fine with me.
>
> Please limit your comments to how this change would have affected
> *you* personally in a contest during a recent year or how it might
> affect you in the future.  I am not interested in hearing hypothetical
> situations such as "but, but, but, what if someone operates the
> contest from the USVI, then goes on a 16 day Carnival Cruise
> immediately after the contest, and during the cruise an asteroid falls
> out of the sky and disables the communications system rendering the
> onboard internet cafe inoperable?"  I can think of plenty of
> hypothetical situations of this nature on my own, as well as plenty
> non-hypothetical ones.  Earlier this year I spent 42 days in VP8/F,
> VP8/Sand and VP8/G, and I can tell you that I could have beaten the 15
> day deadline from any of these places had it been necessary.  What I
> am looking for is *practical* feedback about problems that the 15 day
> deadline could possible create in your own personal situation.



I fully support this proposal.  Something like this was EXACTLY what I was
hoping would be the consequence of moving the line scores out of QST.

As for some of your assumptions...  Personally, the first thing I do with my
logs is immediately copy them to another media and then I either process the
logs the next day/evening (once my head is moderately clear), or they sit in
the computer until the deadline looms near.   The absolute number of days to
the deadline has never been an issue with me.  I've never been on a
DXpedition in a contest, however.  But, it's hard for me to imagine any
location in the world that, short of a boat sinking or airplane crashing,
would not allow me to get to an internet port within 15 days.  Or, put
differently, I would plan for that to happen with plenty of time to spare
for backup.

As evidence 15 days' being sufficient, I'll relate some of my experience
with cruise lines.   I note that just about every cruise line offers cruises
in the 10-12 day-long time frame.  In that time, a cruise can get you from
Istanbul to the east coast of Spain. Or, from Southampton, England to
Athens.  Transatlantic is much shorter.  BA to the Antarctic and back is
slightly less.  And that's mostly with overnight cruising and sitting in a
port all day or meandering in beautiful bays looking at wildlife during the
day.    So, can a fishing trawler make it from Unreachable Rock to Internet
City in 10-12 days without the sightseeing delays?  Absolutely, IMHO.
<Now, if the deal is, he has to stop to fish, dunno :-))  >

Nice job.  Thanks for taking the lead on vastly improving our results
publication.

Vy 73,

Gary W2CS
Apex, NC