[CQ-Contest] Yanks in domestic contests: Please learn a bit about your neighbours

[Zack Widup]

Dave wrote:
> 
> "Americans are amiably ill-informed about Canada, while Canadians are
> irritably well-informed about the United States."
> 
> This old chestnut is played out as truth every time I get on in a
> US-organised domestic contest.  I always run into people whose profound
> ignorance about us, their neighbours, irritates the bejeebers out of me:
> - Some whinge that their software does not recognise what multiplier I am (I
> can't fix your software from here)
> - Some ask me what "providence" I am in (the word is "province!")
> - Some try to tell me that they know better that I where I am located ("No,
> no, no - VO1 is New Brunswick!")
> - Some just guess wildly when they have trouble ("My software doesn't
> understand NL, so I'll just put in "NS.")
> And it makes it a drag for me to hand out a multiplier you want to work.
> 

All these section/state/province/country designations seem to have
anomalies.  We have DXCC entities still on the list that shouldn't be
entities by today's rules.  We have section designations that seem
eccentric.  The only system that is in use that cannot be changed due to
political affiliation, proximity to other land masses, etc. and makes
perfect sense is the grid square system, mostly used on VHF but found in
a few HF contests.  Even if California falls into the sea (that'll be
the day I go back to Annandale :-), we would still have the same grid
squares - California ops would just be in  different ones!

Maybe we need a US/Canada contest that exchanges grid squares on HF?

73, Zack W9SZ