[CQ-Contest] WPX Plaques - Who should win them?

[Julius Fazekas]

Hi Dick
See below:


> I like the idea of awarding plaques, trophies or even medals
> to the top
> three finishers in each major geographic category: World,
> Continent,
> Country. The awards don't have to be the same: the most
> expensive award,
> probably an engraved plaque or trophy, could go to the
> winner, with less
> expensive awards (smaller plaques/trophies, medals, pins,
> coffee mugs,
> paperweights, etc.) going to the second and third place
> finishers.
> Generally, I favor "hard" awards vs paper awards,
> but plaque-mounted
> certificates with a sheet of acrylic over the paper can
> look very nice and
> are probably cheaper and easier to produce than engraved
> plaques.

I like this idea too... Silver Dollar size award medals would be neat. I'm not much of a pin man, did like patches (but those seem to be way too 70s now).

I saw a New England QSO Party plaque on K1GU's wall back when TCG had the HQ call for IARU and decided I had to have one of those. I'm spoiled and like our TnQP plaques as well with the wood shaped like our state. The 7QP plaques are not all that expensive and are quite nice. As much as I like the MnQP plaques, I get more of a kick out of the wild rice ;o)

There are a couple people I know who have told me that they have boxes with plaques stored in closets, undisplayed, because they have too many... That's a shame, although maybe after 20 years that can happen.
> 
> Another idea would be to have a special award for the top
> ten finisher with
> the lowest score deduction. Accuracy should be recognized
> and promoted. I'd
> be willing to sponsor such an award.

Good idea!

> 

> Top-ten finishers should always be recognized, if only with
> a certificate.
> ARRL does a nice job with certificates for DX and IARU.
> They're attractive
> and clearly indicate the placement in large type. The
> legend printed on WPX
> certificates has sometimes been ambiguous -- i.e., not
> clear whether the
> indicated placement is for the area, USA, world, etc. Other
> times the
> certificates have been clear about that, but the small type
> tends to minimize the accomplishment of making the top ten.

CQ certificates do tend to be a bit inconsistent on the details. I like the IARU format and details, although it would be nice to have new reords noted on it. Considering the amount of records being broken lately, that would be a nice detail on any contest award.
> 

> I've always been a bit puzzled by the practice of
> giving awards to
> second-place finishers when the first-place finisher wins a
> larger area.
> While I appreciate the sentiment of spreading awards
> around, I'd feel sort
> of funny getting an also-ran plaque like that. How do I
> explain to a visitor
> that I actually came in second, but the other op won a
> bigger area so I got
> the first place award? I think awarding 1st, 2nd, and 3rd
> place awards makes more sense and spreads the wealth more effectively.

This is true if you have a lot of contesters coming into the shack who know what they are looking at... But if it's like my shack where more folks are confused by the whole concept, a plaque is impressive, a nice design more so, but the wording is meaningless... although everyone knows what "new US or World or xxx record" means. (Do I sound like a broken one?)

73,
Julius
n2wn