[CQ-Contest] Deadlines, log checking, and paper logs

[David A. Pruett]

Speaking as another logchecker, I agree totally with the comments made by 
K4JRB.  If we are going to have fifteen day log deadlines and thirty days 
for results, then we're going to have to live with the following realities:

1. Not enough time to guarantee arrival for overseas logs coming by postal 
mail, whether on paper or floppy disk.  I think that we here in America 
take e-mail for granted and I for one am not willing to preclude entries 
from stations who for whatever reason cannot electronically submit.

2. The entrant will have to be responsible for submitting a log in the 
correct format.  This is not a minor problem - in the 2001 ARRL 10M 
Contest, 200 of the 2100+ electronic logs had errors as submitted which 
would have precluded them being included in the results, and many of these 
were big guns.  Most of these are cockpit errors, which tell me that the 
fast majority of entrants never look at their log files before mailing them 
in.  In the case of the 10M contest, fixing these problem logs (manual 
editing, requesting new logs) took over 30 man-hours.  With the compressed 
timetables being proposed, anything more than minor corrections will go 
into the bit bucket.

As Trey pointed out, the web site results could be updated for late logs 
and corrections.  However, if we allow for this what point is there to 
publishing results after 30 days when the standings might change after 40 
days?  Furthermore, when is the cutoff to issue awards?

My point here is that there is more to this that simply decided to compress 
the timeframe.  If you want fast, recognize that there will be more 
responsibility on you, the entrant if you want to be sure to make the results.

73,

Dave/K8CC