[CQ-Contest] A thought about contest reporting

[Dean Wood]

> Want to hear/read about small stations with good results -
> stand up guy's !
>
> Let's keep encouraging the people with less strong cards
> in the game with new ideas, to keep everybody motivated.
>
> Ulli, ON5KQ


Ulli,

You have touched on two issues: telling the story of the average
station, and motivating/recognizing stations like them throughout the
world.

We have not done a particularly good job as a contest community with
combining these two points.

Today, we have multiple venues for any contester to tell his story,
regardless of score or size of station.  The most prominent is the use
of the 3830 reflector web form and soapbox.  I did not operate in CQWW
CW at all, but I have enjoyed reading several CQWW CW contest stories
using the 3830 web based archives.  (web based archives are the only
way I read the 3830 and cq-contest reflectors)  I either click on
individual 3830 posts, or I check out the entire collection of soapbox
comments with the file that WA7BNM generates.  The 3830 reflector is
not just for big guns!  For ARRL contests, the ARRL has a soapbox web
page where any station can write their story and upload pictures.
Some stations upload videos on YouTube of themselves operating the
contest to give an idea of a contest from their perspective.  And the
ARRL's online contest writeup offers sidebars for contesters to tell
their own story and include pictures, although the web report is
limited to ARRL members.  I just wish more stations would take
advantage of these opportunities!

As for motivation and recognition, perhaps we could attempt a new
strategy.  Instead of adding new contest categories, we can add a new
feature to contest results called "The Other 95%."  This extra section
would be for those stations not in the ARRL's Top 10 boxes or CQ's
"Top Scores" table.  Stations would write a few paragraphs about how
they operated in the contest, or improved their score over last year,
or overcame an obstacle to even operate.  A relevant picture would be
included.  The 5 most interesting stories get published in CQ or QST
in a few pages with the contest results article.  Examples: an
operator that solved a power line or electronic device noise problem
in the neighborhood and briefly how he did it, or an operator that
transitioned from a random wire to a homebrew 40m 2-el half-square
wire Yagi in his backyard supported by trees, or an operator that
joined (or hosted) a local club Multi-op where the group helped to put
up a tower and new antenna, or someone who operated portable in his
auto parked near sea water, or someone who joined a contest club
recently and improved his operating skills and CW copying ability,
etc.  There are numerous stories like this all the time, yet they are
rarely highlighted in contest results.

A section like this in contest results could be inspirational to the
average contester, give ideas to the reader on how to improve his
situation for next year, motivate the casual contester into
participating next year, focus on success stories that encourage
constant improvement instead of highlighting a station that is
satisfied to stay at that score level and gives excuses why further
improvement is not possible, and recognize the operators of the top 5
stories in a way that a line score isn't able to achieve.  The top 5
stories could even turn into a competition to get in next year's list!
 All this would make contest writeups more interesting, and would be
created with user generated content, proofread by someone at the
magazine.

Maybe this is just the type of content we need to convince the ARRL to
expand the size of the contest writeups.  And with the space given for
CQ contest writeups in CQ Magazine (the 2007 CQWW CW writeup was
printed across 21 pages), perhaps we could find room for this, or
exchange it with the 1.5 pages of "QRM", maybe adding one or two extra
pages in total.

I like reading the stories about the top stations and operators.  But
I would also like to read about the successes of the average contester
trying to get better.

73...
-Dean - N6DE