[CQ-Contest] Real Time Scoreboards

[k3bu at optonline.net]

Howdy esteemed CQ WW Contest Committee,

First of all, thanks for deciding to publish the logs of contesters. It should be done after the deadline and it will be a great vehicle to minimize the outright cheating by having close competitors to look at the logs and point out some things that the judges could miss. It will be deterrent to some "creative logging", but also a great tool for those behind to see and learn how to do it.
 
I think that real time scoreboards are unnecessary and their use should be discouraged.
The nature of ham radio contesting is a competition in defined time frame (say, like downhill skiing), under varying propagation conditions, that make this reporting completely useless (to me anyway). If I am going "for blood", operating seriously, I do not have time to watch the scoreboard and competition. I am trying to maximize my score under my situation and knowing what the competition is doing is pointless. What? Am I supposed to slow down when I am ahead? Or speed up when I am behind? Or quit if D4B is creaming me?

Argument that it would bring non-contesters in, I think is baseless. If anyone is interested in contesting, then he/she should get on, work few stations, hand out points and observe some of the top scorers and learn from watching their operating.
It appears to me that those calling for this real time reporting are not serious about the contesting and are looking for some "entertainment".
 
What is more important is to speed up processing of logs and results. Waiting 9 months for contest results pregnancy is unnecessary and frankly ridiculous. We can have all the logs e-mailed in within 14 days and have results out in one or two months. By the time I see the contest results, I forget I was in the contest :-)
 
In order to make CQ WW better and more attractive I suggest that QSOs with own country should be counted at least ONE point. Discriminating against large and populous ham countries is skewing the scores and is disincentive to more participation, especially for little pistols from populous countries. In the present situation there is no need to penalize large countries with ZERO points, does not serve any purpose. We have to yet reach the situation when we have to discourage people from working stations in the contests.
 
Remove 3 QSO penalty. That has outgrown its purpose from the old days of paper logs and responsibility for duping QSOs by contesters. It is apparent that because of that rule, some operators, when not sure of QSO or due to errors while logging, would remove perfectly good QSO (or M/S "inconvenient") while the other station was under impression of having complete, valid QSO. Log checking and number of logs are getting better and I think it is time to dispense with this "penalty".
 
I think we should strive to make contesting better, easier, more inviting for the newcomers.
Rules should be modernized in a way that would cause scores to go up rather than down, in order to preserve some continuity of all time records. 
 
Breaking results into "my category" does not serve us well. If one is a little pistol, starting, they can cut their teeth on smaller contests and gradually work their way up into the top boxes or records in the biggies. This is INCENTIVE to learn and grow and look forward to the next one. Winning "my block" category and retiring with certificate to prove it, doesn't speak much. Those that grew gradually, are still in it after 40 years. Those that came with big money, put up big station and cornered M/M top spots, are gone after a couple of years. As I mentioned before, if I was just DXer I would be a dead ham long time ago (what else to look forward to?), but as a contester, I am looking (conditions permitting) to the next contest as a new challenge, ball game, that has still lot of mystery and variables that I always try to master and improve on. If I get beaten, I try to figure out why and where to improve, if I win or achieve my goal, I take the XYL to "contest dinner".
 
 73  Yuri, K3BU, VE3BMV etc.

----- Original Message -----
From: Bob Cox 
Date: Friday, October 20, 2006 3:46 pm
Subject: [CQ-Contest] Real Time Scoreboards
To: cq-contest at contesting.com

> 
> 
> Dear Fellow Contester,
> 
> The CQ WW Contest Committee is discussing whether use of real-time
> contest scoreboards is likely to convey information about band
> openings and profitable tactics to an extent that participants using
> the scoreboards should be categorized as assisted. The 2006 CQ 
> WW contest
> rules have already been published and they will govern the 2006 
> contests.
> We welcome your comments on this, and suggest the possibility of also
> sending the comments to the CQ-Contest reflector so that others can
> see them and possibly follow up.
> 
> Comments can be sent to live at cqww.com 
> 
> 
> 73
> Bob, K3EST
> CQ WW Director
> For the CQ WW Committee
> _______________________________________________
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>