[CQ-Contest] 2008 ARRL DX Phone Results and opting out

[Richard DiDonna NN3W]

I'm starting to wonder if perhaps the ARRL should begin publishing the 
abbreviated writeups in QST and the full writeups AND SCORES in NCJ.  In 
addition, perhaps the ARRL should consider allow the membership to OPT for 
either QST or NCJ.  Given that ARRL is quite general interest, many 
contesters might be content with foregoing QST and accepting NCJ as the 
subscription component of their annual League dues.

Obviously, there is a revenue reduction to the League for those who are 
League members and pay the additional $15.00 for NCJ, but if NCJ was an 
option in lieu of QST, there is a savings in printing costs as I am sure QST 
costs a lot more to print than NCJ...

Thoughts?

73 Rich NN3W
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kutzko, Sean, KX9X" <kx9x at arrl.org>
To: <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2008 8:41 PM
Subject: [CQ-Contest] 2008 ARRL DX Phone Results


> Folks,
>
> Complete results for the DX Multi-Op and DX Single-Band categories were 
> not
> printed in the QST version of the 2008 ARRL DX Phone writeup because all 
> of
> the tables (Top Ten, Regional, Club Competition, Plaques, etc) were
> mistakenly left out.  The error was due to a misunderstanding about who 
> was
> going to add the tables to the article.  By the time the error was
> discovered - one day before sending QST to the printer -  a full page of
> coverage had been reallocated to other articles and it was not possible to
> recover it.
>
> The tables are a required part of the article, so the unpleasant decision
> had to be made about what to text cut.  The writeup author (N0AX) made the
> decision to remove the full block of text instead of significantly 
> rewriting
> the entire article so as to reduce its volume by nearly 25%.  It was felt
> that using the full text wherever possible was better than having limited
> text that differed between the two versions of the writeup; print and
> online.  Obviously, some of the stations whose efforts were not reported 
> in
> QST don't have the same perspective and it's easy to understand why they
> might not see things in the same way, absent any information about how 
> this
> all came to pass.
>
> Fortunately, unlike the old days, 100% of the full article, including the 
> DX
> results removed from the QST version, is available in the Web article. 
> That
> version should be available within the next couple of days. The online
> version of all contest results should, in general, be available
> simultaneously with the QST version, but the annual Board of Directors
> meeting and internal work on the ARRL Web site delayed the conversion to
> HTML of this particular article.
>
> Omitting such a significant portion of the writeup is not a permanent 
> policy
> for DX Contest coverage.  We appreciate that some might feel slighted by 
> the
> omission and very much regret that the process of delivering a complete,
> high-quality writeup went awry in this way.  There will be steps taken to
> avoid similar mistakes in the future since we all have the same goal - to
> conduct the contest and report the results with high standards and 
> quality.
>
> 73,
>
> Sean Kutko KX9X - ARRL Contest Branch Manager
> Ward Silver N0AX - ARRL DX Phone Results, Lead Author
>
> 73,
>
> Sean Kutzko KX9X
> Contest Branch Manager
> ARRL - The national association for Amateur Radio
> 225 Main Street
> Newington, CT  06111 USA
> (860) 594-0232
> email: kx9x at arrl.org
>
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