[CQ-Contest] Perception IS reality

[Jim Idelson]

This email is my comment on the "ARRL contest results" thread.

By my count, about 2/3 of the non-US contesters who have commented on this 
topic here on cq-contest say that they are not happy with the way ARRL is 
putting out the results. That fact speaks for itself. Those of you who believe 
you can change their feelings by forcing your own point of view on them will 
fail. The League should listen carefully to these comments from outside the US 
and do their best to understand and address the problem. In the proposal we 
submitted to the League on publication of contest results, we made the point 
quite strongly that coverage of contests must be treated as a global issue. 
This discussion reinforces that point.

Seems to me international participation is an absolute requirement for many 
ARRL contests. It's obvious to me that alienating DX stations in any way is not 
an acceptable result, and steps should be taken to avoid it. This is a tiny 
problem right now; this is the time to fix it.

a) Remove the one month delay - not a single membership will be lost,
b) Put a PDF of the contest results on the website for unrestricted download - 
just like the old QST article and listings - so it can be printed and shared by 
just about anyone, anywhere.
c) Possibly make the on-line Soapbox and/or the sortable database results part 
of the permanent Members Only area. This would allow anyone to get "basic" 
results in the PDF, while Members would have access to the "next level" of 
analysis and results.

73,

Jim Idelson K1IR
email    k1ir at designet.com
web    http://www.designet.com/k1ir