[CQ-Contest] Check numbers again

[Ron Notarius W3WN]

Back in the good old days of paper logs, dupe sheets, and "what the heck is
a MITS?" this very "technical" question came up regarding K3CR (circa 1979)
up at Penn State.

Since, at the time, I was an alumni member of the club living in town -- and
since that meant I had a real job and could afford to pay a long distance
call -- I called the League and asked.  And no, I don't recall who I talked
with at the time, it's been awhile!

The answer was that it didn't matter to the League, if a club was being
operated SO, if the check used was that of the year the club was first
licensed, or the op was first licensed -- as long as it was noted on the
entry form if the check was the ops.  However, their preference was that the
check should match that of the club's call, and strongly encouraged it.

He told me that they encouraged it because many college club stations dated
way back, and while the older precedences were rare and unusual, it also
meant people had to pay attention.  And since K3CR dated back to the
original 8XE license in 1912, a check of 12 was very rare and to be
encouraged.

Alas, of the many things that have changed for the good over the intervening
years, some have not.  And the issue of the "check" is no longer relevant...
and the K3CR ops of the last few years have used many checks, but I couldn't
tell you the last time they used '12' -- in fact, when I brought it to
someone's attention once on the old PSARC listserv, their answer was "well,
we don't know if that's right, it doesn't matter anyway, and who cares?"
*sigh*

73

-----Original Message-----
Date: Mon, 5 Nov 2007 10:41:21 -0600 (CST)
From: Zack Widup <w9sz at prairienet.org>
Subject: [CQ-Contest] Check numbers again
To: cq-contest at contesting.com

I seriously thought about using some made-up number this year but decided
I LIKE to use my real year!

Here's a technical question for the purists:  Say you're using a club
station and callsign.  But you're going single-op. Do you use your year
or the club's year?

73, Zack W9SZ

On Mon, 5 Nov 2007, John Geiger wrote:

> Hi Jeff,
>
> That is what I said when the discussion came up
> before.  What is the purpose of saying the check is
> the last 2 digits of the year first licensed, if they
> don't intend on enforcing it?  Why not say, the check
> is any 2 digit number you make up.
>
> Heck, instead of sending U for the PREC, I should have
> send A even though I was in the U category, since it
> is a shorter exchange, and the PREC you send in no way
> affects the scoring for the other station.
>
> 73s John AA5JG
>