[CQ-Contest] NS Notes

[Haddon/N6ZFO]

Prior to Wk 4 of the NCCC NS Thursday Sprint Ladder here are a
few random notes:

  -- Tks to Bruce's diligence the 3830 problems appear to be sorted
out.  We'd like to collect all the scores from NS Wk3, so please
post to 3830 before Thurs (or directly to n6zfo at arrl.net).

  -- For an updated N4AF score calculator, NSL.exe ver 1.07
see http://www.ncccsprint.com/ns_score.htm .  Use this program
on the Cabrillo file from the NA Sprint module of your logging s/w.

  -- We owe the Sprint contest format to Rusty, W6OAT and others
who've made significant improvements/modifications over the years;
Tree's (n6tr) Internet Sprint being one particularly clever example.

  -- The Webster definition of "sprint (n)" is, in part:
" . . a short run or burst of activity at top speed".   This
defintion fits the NS well.  It begs the question of QSO rate;
higest Q's to date: n6ro, 56; w9re, 55; n3bb, 54; the
"theoretical" i.e. back-of-the-envelope n6zfo calculation,
suggests that a max of above 80 Q's is possible. Perhaps
later we'll add an inducement to achieve some as yet undecided
number of Q's.

  -- The origin of the ladder idea was from the sport of running;
when I joined NCCC in 2001, it surprised me that the club had
no internal sequential ladder competition like the TCRS in my
local running club (www.tamalparunners.org). The concept of
dropping the three lowest scores came from the TCRS.  We
suggest that other clubs could extract their own member's
scores from our results page (www.ncccsprint.com/results.htm);
that's why we include club affiliation in on the 3830 score
page.

  -- Havn't tried NS ???  There's still plenty of time.
Nine more NS sessions remain in this, our third running of
the summer ladder competition.  Consider giving it a shot.

-- Again, remember our big NS goal, according to K7NV, is
to have fun.

73 Bill n6zfo
Contest Director,
NCCC NS Sprint Ladder