[CQ-Contest] Certificates for ARRL DX - a great motivator for new contesters

[David Siddall]

One odd thing: the ARRL never uses the mail address that I submit in my
Cabrillo log. Nor do they use my ARRL membership address.  Instead, they
mail contest certificates to my station's FCC address.  CQ always gets it
right, although they don't mail certificates anymore, just plaques.

73, Dave K3ZJ



On Wed, Apr 4, 2018 at 5:31 PM, Jim Stahl via CQ-Contest <
cq-contest at contesting.com> wrote:

> Printed certificates do matter to experienced contesters; they are a waste
> of the ARRL’s money. I’d rather have that money go to something more useful
> like spectrum defense or RFI mitigation, than spending over a dollar to
> send me a certificate saying I was the top low power all band section award
> winner in a VHF contest. (I think they even send those certificates to
> those who merely had the high score on a single band.)
>
> ARRL ought to adopt support of the Cabrillo "CERTIFICATES: NO” tag.  I’ve
> suggested this to my division director, who seemed receptive. But
> apparently at the last Board meeting there was too much other stuff going
> on.
>
>
> 73  -  Jim   K8MR
>
>
>
> > On Apr 4, 2018, at 10:21 AM, rjairam at gmail.com wrote:
> >
> > I know that some contest sponsors have done away with printed
> > certificates to cut costs, and this is understandable. I have no
> > problem with keeping it sustainable.
> >
> > But I would just like to point out that I have seen quite a few people
> > on social media sharing unexpected ARRL DX certificates. These are
> > usually single op, low power entrants who decided to sit at the radio
> > and work the contest even though they have zero chance of winning one
> > of the big prizes. Some are even encouraged to try even harder and get
> > into contesting more.
> >
> > I think if possible, at least for first time entries that contest
> > sponsors should look to get the certificates to encourage these
> > contesters. There is nothing like finding out that you did well enough
> > to win *something* to encourage you into diving deeper into
> > contesting. Online certifiicates are nice but there is nothing like
> > opening the mailbox and finding a real certificate. This isn't really
> > a participation trophy - these folks topped their section, or maybe
> > earned a single band award. IARU also gives for 250 QSOs, which was my
> > initial motivator for participating in the IARU contest and why it
> > holds a special place for me.
> >
> > For experienced contesters like myself and others, printed
> > certificates really don't matter - we go for the big awards or even
> > just our callsign in the results column. So for us we can mostly opt
> > out. But I think for the newcomers it is important,
> >
> > 73
> > Ria, N2RJ
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