[CQ-Contest] How unique!!

Tree tree at kkn.net
Sun Nov 17 11:03:36 EST 2002


WA9IRV writes:

> You are one cool ham and I love you man, but d*mn it, my only unique in 
> last year's SS was KM0D, Max Wendel, who is the MN ARRL section manager, 
> and he used to WORK FOR ME.  So don't  take away my points for my only 
> annual qso with MADMAX.   We are one of the VERY FEW!!

Everyone has a story of their one or two uniques that they work every 
year.  Here are the ones I have so far in my SS CW log from W5WMU:

CALLSIGN CHECK RESULTS
----------------------
NG5X is a unique call.  Received QSO# = 1.
Calls with same check/section: KC5R

W5WU is a unique call.  Received QSO# = 3.
Calls with same check/section: W5WZ

This is pretty good - since I don't appear to have any busted
calls (no, W5WZ is a different station than W5WU).

A few years ago, some of the locals got a little carried away, and I had
about a dozen unique QSOs - all from Louisiana.  I have since discouraged
this activity and asked that if they do work me, to also work some
other stations in the contest.

Here is another datapoint (from a top ten high power log):

CALLSIGN CHECK RESULTS
----------------------
K5MR is a unique call.  Received QSO# = 1.

K2AY is a busted call.  The correct call is K2UY.

NZ5DX is a unique call.  Received QSO# = 1.

K5NU is a unique call.  Received QSO# = 1.
Calls with same check/section: W5AK W5VX W5UX KG5U

WB2UVV is a busted call.  The correct call is WB2VVV.

Here, it would appear that three "friends" got on to work this guy.
Note that WB2UYV was a unique until it got matched up to WB2VVV.

Then, if we look at a log with poor accuracy:

CALLSIGN CHECK RESULTS
----------------------
K4LA is a busted call.  The correct call is K4LTA.

W7ZKO is a unique call.  Received QSO# = 90.

VE3GX is a unique call.  Received QSO# = 238.
Calls with same check/section: VE3XB

W4SEX is a busted call.  The correct call is W4IDX.

N1SX is a unique call.  Received QSO# = 81.
Calls with same check/section: KA1O

N0AU is a unique call.  Received QSO# = 358.
Calls with same check/section: W0EJ

KA4K is a unique call.  Received QSO# = 338.
Calls with same check/section: K0EJ KT5D

K0RW is a busted call.  The correct call is K9NW.

K4KG is a busted call.  The correct call is K5KG.

W9IVF is a unique call.  Received QSO# = 256.
Calls with same check/section: K8JQ

K1STV is a busted call.  The correct call is K1HTV.

NI9U is a unique call.  Received QSO# = 348.
Calls with same check/section: W9FL

VE3XX is a busted call.  The correct call is VE3XB.

N6BO is a unique call.  Received QSO# = 370.
Calls with same check/section: K7SV K4TX

N9RU is a unique call.  Received QSO# = 654.
Calls with same check/section: W9SZ W9YK N9LV W9OL

KA8E is a busted call.  The correct call is KU8E.

KB4D is a unique call.  Received QSO# = 698.
Calls with same check/section: K3MM W3PO N3OC

N6YA is a busted call.  The correct call is N5YA.

KO0D is a unique call.  Received QSO# = 1012.
Calls with same check/section: N8NX K8UT

W4ECR is a busted call.  The correct call is WB4ECR.

N4AM is a unique call.  Received QSO# = 769.
Calls with same check/section: KY5R K4XR

W1PJ is a unique call.  Received QSO# = 269.
Calls with same check/section: K1SM NB1B NK1L

How many of these unique callsigns are really unique?  I would guess
about zero of them.  However, since the exchanges also got mangled
enough, it is not possible for the software to match up the bad
callsigns to the correct ones.  Therefore, unless I go spend a lot
of time manually working on these, the unique QSOs will all count.

So - in my opinion, the price to be paid to count those 2 or
three real uniques in everyone's logs, is that people with poor
accuracy get to count a lot of their QSOs that should be busted.

If one of these guys ends up slightly ahead of you, were you really
better off being able to count that QSO with your Section Manager?

How about is someone has 30 friends get on and all work someone and
nobody else?  Is that really what we are trying to encourage in the 
contest?

In summary, it is very obvious to guys like me who look at all
of this data that the contest would be better off if we just 
tossed uniques in the SS (at least CW).  There just aren't that
many of them - and the results will be more fair.

Maybe someday, public opinion will agree.

73 Tree N6TR
tree at kkn.net



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