[CQ-Contest] Beyond Unsportsmanlike

[Dale L Martin]

> It took me less time than one QSO at 20WPM to realize Ward's
> "encouragement" letter for newbies last week deserved some cyberspace;
> I posted it on eHam pronto.  I hope it got a few guys on the air.
>

I don't know if it worked or not, but I sent Ward's note (twice, it turned
out: I needed to modify the operating times to CST) to all the ARRL
affiliated clubs in Texas on Friday.

I went to the ARRL webpage (http://www.arrl.org) and clicked on clubs.  I
selected TX as the search field ofr ARRL-affiliated clubs.  I selected and
copied all the clubs and pasted them into Notepad.  I then opened Excel and
imported the .txt file containing the clubs listing.

I then wrote a VBA macro to delete all lines not containing an e-mail
address, remove the "E-mail: " in that field and  concantenate the addresses
into one field (line).

I then copied 25 e-mail addresses at a time from that line and pasted them
into an e-mail BCC field.  I copied and pasted Ward's text into the e-mail
message and sent it.

I have no idea how effective that exercise was.  I didn't get any feedback
from anyone about whether the addressees (indicated as points-of-contact for
the clubs) even redistributed the note to their members, so, who knows who
saw it.

73,
dale, kg5u