[CQ-Contest] Thoughts from a sponsor on one hour log deadlines

[Michael Coslo]

>

I've been reading some of the posts calling for a one hour deadline  
for log submissions. I don't think it will work very well. And I have  
actual facts to support that opinion.

In way of personal experience, I added a "logs received" page to our  
website to allow Ops to see if we actually got their submissions.

A fair number of folks sent in their logs, but we never got them. The  
logs were lost somewhere in the ether. I don't know where, but they  
were. Having that web page allowed people to check.

Important:

1.If a sponsor does not get an email, they don't know that they  
didn't get it.

2. Perhaps most importantly, email is terribly unreliable. I deal in  
many hundreds of emails a day, and some mail gets lost almost every  
day. Possible culprits are:
	misaddressing
	Petulant spam filters
	unknown black holes

3. Is everyone's net access always running, 24/7/365.25? I've got  
pretty good cable web, but it goes down from time to time. It would  
be a pity to have all the hard work from a contest be for naught  
because there was a DOS attack going on right after a contest. Even  
more sinister, some miscreant could bring the contest site's servers  
down, and they would know just when to do it!

4. Transit time - Try an experiment - time some email. It does not go  
at the speed of light. I've had email delays of well over an hour on  
occasion (these were emails sent to me automatically, so I know when  
they were sent.
	
5. All these things are correctable, but not if you only have an hour  
to correct them. Is it fair to DQ an Op because his/her internet  
connection went down or they didn't have the right address or one of  
a hundred things that can go wrong?

I would respectfully suggest that the idea of a one hour time limit  
for log submission is Draconian, would eliminate entire classes  
(honest officer, I had a good reason to be going 150 mph - I had to  
get to a wifi hotspot to submit my mobile log before time runs out!)  
First time Ops often have issues with logging programs, and it takes  
them a while t get things ready. I've talked several through  
preparing their logs.

Now, how about the person who submits their log 60 minutes and 1  
second after the contest? Or sends it right after the contest and  
transit time delays it? I'd give up on contesting if I was at the  
mercy of my web connection.

  I'm pretty convinced such a short deadline would have a deleterious  
effect on contesting, and those very few who do cheat would just find  
other ways to cheat.


-73 de Mike N3LI -