[CQ-Contest] 1980s checks in SS/SSB.

[Kelly Taylor]

Hi Rich,
Hope you're well.

To me, this is a pretty good case for turning off any autofill feature
(aside from fills of exchanges from the same contest (for contests where you
can work guys multiple times on different bands). I'd rather trust my ears
than a possibly faulty database, though I think the potential for both to
let me down is large! Keeping an autofill feature off is a good way to not
fall into the trap of recording the wrong information.

The check in SS is a variable in some cases, for a couple of reasons. The
rules say year of first license (though if you read carefully, the rules
don't say which license (driver's? radio? nursing?)), but they don't say
first license of whom. The operator at that moment? The station licensee?
The holder of whatever callsign is used?

It's also variable because none of the above matters: the League is spending
(read: wasting) zero time cross-referencing checks with licensing databases
because the point of any decent contest is the successful exchange of the
information, not the content itself. So the test is did you copy what was
sent, not did you send the same check as all the other times you entered.
Particularly as we get more into the 21st century and more checks could well
be either 19xx or 20xx.

73, kelly
ve4xt


On 11/21/14 7:10 AM, "Richard Ferch" <ve3iay at storm.ca> wrote:

> K0RC wrote:
> 
>> Actually, it's a know fact that _some_ operators change their check to try
>> and thwart the "appliance contesters" out there. :-)
> 
> This is a classic example of cutting off your nose to spite your face.
> The person who is hurt most by this is likely to be the person who
> changes their check every year, because of increased requests for
> repeats as compared with someone whose exchange is more predictable.
> 
> 73,
> Rich VE3KI
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