[CQ-Contest] LZ DX Contest 2002 results & NEW RULES 2003

[Bruce Sawyer]

I was stunned to read the recently-released report from last year's LZ DX
contest and see that the judges in this contest had disallowed fully 40% of
the contacts I made in this contest last fall.  In every other contest I
enter, I have a very low UBN rate.  So how to explain a loss of 40% of
contacts?  I knew during the contest that I was going to have a higher error
rate than normal because it was obvious that a significant number of the
stations I was working did not know the contest exchange (ITU zone) and were
likely giving me CQ zone numbers, sequence numbers, random numbers, or maybe
even their IQ.  Unless I knew from the prefix of the station I was working
that the exchange was incorrect, I simply logged what was sent.  And since I
only have a few ITU zones memorized, that wasn't a very effective correction
mechanism.  But still--a 40% UBN rate???

Closer inspection of the UBN report appears to give some clues.  While I
can't decipher the difference between "QSO OK" and "QSO VALID", it is
apparent that contacts are disallowed if the station worked is a unique call
or if the station worked does not submit a log.  With all due respects to
the contest organizers, this is grossly unfair to entrants located a
significant distance from Bulgaria.  While the "everybody can work everybody
else" format is to be applauded, this business of disallowing uniques and of
requiring confirmation via log submissions imposes a huge penalty on contest
entrants who are likely to attract a large number of casual operators or DX
chasers.  To put it bluntly, there is no way in the future that I will waste
my time on this contest or others like it which impose such a penalty.

US and Canadian contesters may be interested to note that starting this fall
this contest (which happens the same weekend as sideband sweepstakes) will
move from being a CW contest to being a mixed mode contest.  That ought to
create plenty of confusion for all the yodelers out there.  (CU on the WARC
bands.)

Bruce, ZF2NT