[CQ-Contest] Annoying trend

[Richard DiDonna NN3W]

Hello from Istambul!

After 13 hours of flying and being sick yesterday, I finally got a chance to look at some contest-related email.  Wow.

I've received not one, not two, not three, but four emails asking me to confirm name and state information from the NAQP.  Obviously what they heard in the contest does not match what they're seeing on qrz.com so they're "confused".  I'll guess that either 1) I'll delete them or 2) tell them the day after the logs are due.

I was also a bit miffed by the fact that in at least three times during the contest I had guys seemingly confused by the fact that the name or the state I gave them did not match what was on QRZ.com.  And, interestingly, I had several folks, get confused when I didn't tell them my name was "Bubba" - the name I used last year.

I'm going to assume that this is not a major concern since most top caliber contesters rely on what they hear on the air when they work each station....Or is it??

Either way, perhaps a nudge or guideline stating that the use of callsign databases or the callbook should be discouraged during or after the contest is over is in order.  After all, its possible that some of these ops might someday become serious competitors, and we don't want prior tendencies to carry over...

73 Rich NN3W