[CQ-Contest] Public Log

[James Duffey]

Dallas - You wrote:
"The one point that I have not seen profered is, if the logs have been  
adjudicated by the contest committee, why would you want/need to see  
them. In otherwords, what's in it for you to see my logs?"

Well, for one thing, it will satisfy my curiosity. For example, if I  
am sure that I worked you, and got a NIL from the log checkers for our  
QSO, I really want to know what is in your log when I thought we worked.

Expanding on this point, publishing logs will let anyone check the  
checkers. It will make the log checking process open to all. It will  
make the log checkers directly accountable their actions. For ARRL  
contests the log checkers word is law; they will not entertain  
questions about rejected QSOs. Now, there is no recourse to verify  
that what they have checked has been checked correctly. It is like a  
court of law that only publishes the verdict. I understand why this is  
so, but I think that it is dangerous that a group who has so much  
power makes decisions that cannot be verified. I do not think that  
they abuse this power now, in fact, I think that they do a great job.  
That may not always be the case however. Publishing logs opens the log  
checking to scrutiny from anyone and that is good.

A second thing. If I am interested in how a rule change will affect  
scores, complete logs that are available to anyone is the best way to  
do this. Now the only way to accomplish this is to ask for volunteers  
to rescore their log. One does not get a representative sample that way.

My main interest in contesting is as a VHF/UHF rover, so I come at the  
problem from that perspective. Just my two dits worth. - Duffey

--
KK6MC
James Duffey
Cedar Crest NM