[RTTY] Grid Dip Review...

[MRBILL1953 at aol.com]

Greetings:

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of those that participated in 
our very first "Grid Dip" Contest over this past weekend. I know for some it 
will not remain as one of those most memorable moments in contesting, but 
nevertheless we were quite excited at the results we're seeing. Granted we would 
have liked to have seen a heck of a lot more participation but we hope that will 
come in due time. 

I've read almost everyone's 'SOAPBOX' remarks with great interest. The 
general consensus say's we need more participation and I agree 100%! But, a lot said 
the band conditions were horrible. Personally, I think the bands were quite 
stinky. However, that did not account for the lack of participation, 
particularly on the RTTY side of the contest. At least no all of it I should say.  I was 
really hoping that we'd see quite a bit of interest from the RTTY OP's and 
that maybe we could even have started a little RTTY Versus PSK type of 
challenge. But that was not the case this year.

I am NOT here to make it all sound like dome & gloom! Nope!! In fact like I 
stated above we're quite excited about everything we're seeing and reading. The 
remarks have been very favorable towards this new contest and a good number 
have stated they're looking forward to next year's "Grid Dip." As with all 
contests when they're new they must go through some growing pains until they're 
"accepted" by the contesters World-Wide. I can remember back to the early day's 
of the TARA RTTY Sprint and that was no gigantic splash in the water when it 
first ran either. But, with each year came more and more contesters and now we 
believe it's a damn good contest. 

So, what's in store for the "Grid Dip?" Actually we don't see any changes as 
of right now but we'll keep you posted. Although, I think we might need to 
reexamine the contest date. One thing that was pointed out by a couple of very 
good contesters was the fact that we had  NO actual contesting software 
package/modules. One of the best remarks I saw was something like this, "Lots of 
Publicity but NO Software =  NO PARTICIPATION!"  I think we saw evidence to back 
that statement up.    

So, I guess we need to get the word out better to our many fine software 
developers and ask them on bended knee to help us if they can. Hopefully, by next 
year's contest we'll have several different software packages that will have 
incorporated the "Grid Dip" in to their programs. We have four contests now 
under our new Four Seasons Contesting Calendar and I know that 2 of them are 
covered by many of the logging software packages but our "Grid Dip" and the new 
"Prefix - Skirmish" are the ones in question. Even though our TARA RTTY Melee 
(formerly the TARA RTTY SPRINT) took on a new name it basically is  the same 
contest but we've just expanded it and added a few other modes to it! The TARA 
Rumble, that too is covered by a good number of logging software 
packages/modules so we are looking pretty good with that contest. If there is any software 
developers/authors that are reading my message I'd love to hear from 
you.....PLEASE!

Another question I've seen floating around is, "Should I submit just one 
QSO?" My answer of course is absolutely! I think any contest you enter you should 
send your score in to the sponsoring host. Especially with the smaller 
organizations like ourselves. Yeah, I know, who in hell likes to send in a CLAIMED 
SCORE for 1 stinking QSO? And, in most cases it's more time consuming than 
anything else. Please understand that for us little guys it demonstrates you had 
good intentions to participate but maybe things just didn't work out the way you 
had planned. Maybe, you found it to be a drag. Maybe, it was a horrible 
contest. Maybe the band conditions were horrible. I could go on and on. Bottom 
line, we need the results no matter how small and we need input, both POSITIVE & 
NEGATIVE! So, please send in your contest results right now. I know they're a 
good number of you that still haven't but I hope this letter will encourage you 
to do so. It's easy as can be, just go to:

http://www.n2ty.org/seasons/tara_seasons.html  

>From this page above simply CLICK on the "Grid Dip" Rules & Regulations and 
at the bottom of the page you'll see the link for the TARA Score Submissions. 
This page is fast and easy, it shouldn't take you maybe but 3 minutes of your 
time to complete. Couldn't you give TARA just 3 minutes? I sure hope so!

Oh yes, just one more thing. I tried PSK63 for the very first time in this 
contest. What a FANTASTIC contest mode! It may be a little too fast for a slow 
typer like me to hold a general ragchew but for contesting...it's the NUTS!! I 
highly recommend that you try it in the next contest, actually try it out 
today! I'd love to see and hear more chatter about this mode for contesting. 

I Thank You for reading this message. Our club has been most fortunate to 
have the strong and faithful support that we've received over the year's. I can 
only say we owe ALL of our success to each of you! Don't ever forget that these 
contests are as much your's as they are TARA's.  For without you to support 
them with having nothing but some good intentions. If anyone reading this 
message would like to help out on the TARA Digital Team, speak up and let me know, 
we ALWAYS need folks to assist us. 

73 de NY2U "Mr.Bill"
President of TARA
ny2u at n2ty.org