[CQ-Contest] LOTW Percentage, other observations

[jpescatore at aol.com]

I just got back on the air in January, so all my data is for the past two months. About 50% of the contacts are casual DXing, the other half from part time efforts in the various NA and DX contests so far this year. Out of about 1,500 contacts, LOTW is running about 35%, eQSL about 29%.



After about a decade of being off the air, the broad penetration of QRZ.com and LOTW/eQSL is what seems to have changed the most - it seems like for many QSO's "name is/rig is/QSL via" has been replaced with "look at QRZ.com". On the contesting software side, looks like most of the change has been the SO2R-ization of the software on the high end, with all kinds of new stuff basically all built around the orignal CT inteface in the middle of the screen (and in the function keys.) 




On the lower end, amazing how many logbook oriented contest loggers are now out there and neat to see software like EI5DI's SD take a innovative approach for non SO2R/non multi/non-assisted operations.




Two other Rip Van Winkle observations: (1) The Packetcluster monster has become to HF operation what spam is to Internet email. There is a nugget of usefulness that is way overloaded by the downside - the equivalent of spam filtering is badly needed for packetcluster operations. (2) It gratifying to see that once the contest starts, being loud and fast and accurate counts more than being the most digitronic.




John K3TN (ex WB2EKK)