[RTTY] WPX Contest Times and the "TIME POLICE"

[Frank Fallon - N2FF]

At the end of the CQ/RJ WPX Contest I had an encounter with the "time police."  This has never happened before in any contest.  At 23:59 Sunday night I was still calling CQ in the vain hope that a final new multiplier would appear before the minute was out and the contest was over at 2400 GMT/UCT.

Both my MFJ clock which checks WWV daily and resets itself and my logging program showed that it was 2359 and ticking when I was called by name by an unidentified station and told twice that the contest was over at 23:59 and that I should read the rules.  Well I did later on and there in very large print on the CQ site it states that the contest ends at 2400 Sunday.  The time period is not as obvious on the RTTY Journal site but all of us know that this is a 48 hour contest and not a 47 hour and 59 minute contest.  The contest is over when the clock reads 00:00.

Needless to say I did not work that final multiplier to boost my score beyond a piddling 505 QSO's and 312,000 points.

So beware the "Time Police" who will jam your frequency for that last minute.  I wonder if it was one of those greedy SO2R guys?  (Just kidding, guys.  Those lads know the rules!) 

BTW: I do think we need a SO1R category.  Most of the 2R guys I worked near the end of the contest had nearly 1000 more QSOs than I did.  It was pretty obvious that we were not in the same contest and or category.

73 de Frank......N2FF...... in a time warp.........