[RTTY] Re: Contest Happenings??

[Tom Moore]

Not sure how this little habit/feature ever got started except that it
may have been as a result of some programmer getting a lot QSL cards
with incorrect times.  As a result, he decided to send the correct time
at the end of all his qso's to help the potential QSL'er to fill out his
card correctly.

I've never done that, but I do get a lot cards with times that are 2 to
4 hrs off. In a lot of cases, I figured out, the time is his 'local'
time instead of UTC or Z time!  This occurs often enough to generate
some confusion and frustration especially when the originator sends
cards for 'every' single QSO he ever made with me; i.e, 6 20M contacts,
10 15M QSO's, 7 40M Q's, etc. I can perhaps see the need for two, maybe
three cards to confirm QSO's on each mode ande band. And I hate not to
reply to a QSL card requesting a reply. But a card for every single QSO
ever made with me? C'mon give me a break.

Ah, the auto printing of lables.  Because its apparently so easy now, it
seems like more and more are printing QSL labels for every QSO after
each contest. Putting sometimes as many as 6, 8 or even 10 QSO's on a
single QSL card. I've often wondered if I'd get all those cards for all
those same mode/band QSO's if the sender had to fill them all out by
hand. QSL'ing EVERY QSO, it seems to me, just lessens the significance
and value of the QSL.  And, I think this computer generated 'bulk'
QSL'ing is the reason why many have quit qsl'ing via the burro
altogether.

Even so, because I receive a QSL requesting a response, I have, in the
past, felt obligated to reply to each and every card I get.  But I don't
have or use auto printed lables, so I have to fill out each card by
hand! And I'm getting older so it takes a lot of time and effort
especially when there's usually a bunch of them with the wrong times on
them. So it may not be too long before I'm forced to quit responding to
QSL's received via the buro, or at minimum, start doing selective QSL
responses.

It sure seems to me we are fast losing the meaning and purpose of many
of our long honored traditions.

SEVEN THREE (not seventy three, seventy threesss, or seventy thirds)


Tom WX4TM

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kok Chen" <chen at mac.com>
To: "rtty-contesting" <rtty at contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 26, 2005 11:14 AM
Subject: Re: [RTTY] Re: Contest Happenings??


> Even though there is a 4-digit macro for UTC time for use in contest
> exchanges that need them, the one thing that I have utterly refused to
> implement is a string macro which has the current date and time in its
> full glory.  It only encourages the LIDs.  Let them type it in if they
> feel that strongly about announcing to the world the date and time at
> which they have entered the QSO into the log.
>
> 73
> Chen, W7AY
>
>
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