[CQ-Contest] [Fwd: Re: 2006 Pa QSO Party Plans]

[Mike Coslo]

Rex Maner wrote:

>Its about time for the PA QP to wake up and join the rest of the world with 
>use of cabrillo or something that doesn't require the individual contestor 
>to jump thru hoops to submit a log. 
>
     Rex, You might start your own contest and show us sleepyheads how 
to do it. ;^) The impetus for the paper summary sheet requirement *was* 
the electronic log submission process. I set up the log emailing 
structure a few years ago with then chairman Chuck K3CM.

    You mention "cabrillo or something". I'll fill you in on one of 
contestings dirty little secrets.

    There is cabrillo, and there is Cabrillo. Many amateurs trot out the 
word as some sort of Mantra, believing that it solves all problems. It 
don't. We do indeed take cabrillo logs, and you won't see hardly two of 
them alike. More on this later.

    Let's go to *your* QSO party now.......

    Your first decision:

    Using the "modern" method of electronic log submission, 40 percent 
of the submitters did not do it correctly.


    You

    A. Disqualify them all.

    B. attempt to cure the problem.

    While some may say that disqualifying several hundred submissions 
will indeed cure the problem. You can bet that there will be several 
hundred less people operating in the party the next year. That would be 
cutting off our nose to spite our face.
 

>  I worked it in about 1999 and they 
>only would accept paper logs and that was the end for me.   NO  I didn't 
>send a log.
>  
>
  I don't proclaim to know the rationale behind staying up late, getting 
up early,  confining yourself to a chair for hours upon hours, and then 
finding it too much trouble to mail a log, but that's okay if you do.

    The PAQSO is a different type of party, and not for everyone. We 
have a lot of sometimes strange rules, lots of classes and certificates 
and plaques, and we're more about having fun in the fall than cut-throat 
competition. I gave up my run frequency several times this weekend to 
one or another station, and some did the same for me. We let others come 
in and work rare counties on our run frequencies. It's all good fun.

    But as a plea, if you know a better way to do things by all means, I 
urge you to get involved and run a party.  Show us the right way to do it!

    One word of advice though. spearhead something else than Cabrillo. 
It was outdated a long time ago, and is not the way of the future.


    - 73 de Mike KB3EIA -