[CQ-Contest] Sweepstakes -Automatic Fill - 93 or 67

[Michael Coslo]

On Apr 9, 2009, at 4:01 AM, Shelby Summerville wrote:

> Tom Frenaye wrote: "It matters.  The rules say so."
> And the rules also say: "The last 2 digits of the year of first  
> license for
> either the operator or the station.", along with "The same Check  
> must be
> used the entire contest." Why is it so important to enforce one  
> portion of
> the rules, and not another? IMHO, the contest manager is responsible  
> for
> enforcing the rules, as they are written at the time of the contest,  
> not
> being able to "pick and choose" which ones will be enforced?  
> Inconsistent
> enforcement of rules, regardless of the venue, only causes  
> frustration for
> the participants.

(speaking from my own experience)

Sponsors would seem to have a different outlook and a different  
purpose for their involvement in contesting.

At least from my perspective, the idea is to get as many people to  
participate as possible.

 From the perspective of many contesters, a goal is to disqualify as  
many people as possible.

Let's look at the rule as you posted.

>> "The last 2 digits of the year of first license for
>> either the operator or the station.", along with "The same Check  
>> must be
>> used the entire contest."



Right away you can see that they are not overly strict on the whole  
thing. Otherwise there would be no  second sentence. Strict  
interpretation of the rules would have only one of two possible  
numbers. Strict interpretation would mean that each op would have to  
send in proof of their initial licensing or the initial licensing of  
the station they are using. Anything else makes it an unverifiable rule.

Since people like to discuss how rules are interpreted, in the event  
of say a club station, they often use callsigns of honored SK's. Is  
the date when the SK was first licensed, or is it when it is  
transferred over to a trustee? Or is it the first licensing of the  
Trustee? If the SK, what if you can't find out that date. No  
contesting for a contest with that exchange?

For all that matter, the rules state "first license". They don't say  
what license! Is that a drivers license? An Ohio plumber's license?

The year of licensing? According to what calendar?

N3LI's rule of rules: Give me a rule, and I can destroy it in seconds.  
The same with the rewrite....

The exchange as it is, is two numbers. In order to come up with those  
two numbers, they use criteria of when an Op or station was first  
licensed. They furthermore state that the same check be used  
throughout the entire contest. That second statement is actually the  
important one. you have to be consistent. Two numbers. Consistently.

Hans' tactic of changing his numbers every year is fine by me. After  
all, I am more interested in logging accuracy than verification of  
that year of first licensing. And I don't consider anything autofilled  
as actually exchanged, be it an automatically entered 599, or an  
exchange you got last year, or a section that the computer insists the  
other Op is working at.

> IMHO, the contest manager is responsible for
> enforcing the rules, as they are written at the time of the contest,  
> not
> being able to "pick and choose" which ones will be enforced?


It's a matter of actually trying to have a contest, or writing rules  
till the end of the earth. See my rule of rules above. We have to be  
able to see the intent of the rules. In this case, the intent is  
pretty clear.


Case note. A year or two ago, I re-wrote the PAQSO Party rules. I  
added a few, clarified others, added  specific definitions of just  
about everything I could. By the time I was finished, I took the one  
page of rules we had and expanded it to something like 13 pages. Yet  
not too long afterwards, I got called out for the rules not being  
clear enough. At some point, it has to be the fault of someone else.  
Most everyone else just loved them.

One of my favorite parts of the rewrite was that the rules used to  
have frequencies of operation. They were indeed meant as a guideline.  
But every year someone tried to say that they meant that they were the  
only frequencies you could operate on. So I ended up calling them  
"suggested frequencies". Just like when you look at a can of  
vegetables, and they show the veggies, and maybe a plate with a steak  
on it. They put "suggested serving" so that nobody thinks a plate and  
a steak are going to pop out of the can when it is opened. 8^)



-73 de Mike N3LI -