[RTTY] Re the LoTW stats

[Alan Burgstahler]

Phil, I was interested to read your comments regarding the LOTW 
confirmations for the RTTY contests as compared to other contests.

For the last few years I have been updating my contest logging information 
with the LOTW results that I have received.  With few exceptions, the RTTY 
contests have far greater LOTW confirmations than any of the other contests. 
For example:

2006 RTTY RU = 60.13%
2006 NAQP CW = 40.00%
2006 CQWW160CW = 29.19%
2006 BARTY Sprint = 64.17%
2006 CQWPXRTTY = 51.79%
2006 ARRLDXCW = 20.52%
2006 NAQP RTTY = 64.67%
2006 ARRLDXSSB = 19.65%
2006 BARTY Spring = 59.09%
2006 CQWPXSSB = 24.14%
2006 CQWPXCW = 62.56%
2006 DLDXRTTY = 46.15%
2006 WAECW = 15.38%
2006 SARTG = 61.05%
2006 WAESSB = 20.00%
2006 CQWWRTTY = 54.22%
2006 California QP = 33.65%
2006 CQWWSSB = 23.87%
2006 ARRL SSCW = 36.68%
2006 ARRL SSSSB = 33.33%
2006 CQWWCW = 21.96%
2006 ARRL 160m = 35.25%
2006 ARRL 10m = 36.87%
2006 Stew Perry = 31.36%

I have similar numbers for 2007, but for 2006 this gives people time to get 
their contacts into LOTW if they're going to.  Obviously, as people sign up 
for LOTW, I occasionally get more updates on all these contests.

Now, we could say that for those contests that are DX contests for the USA 
(such as ARRLDXCW, WAECW, WAESSB, CQWWSSB, CQWWCW), most of my contacts 
(other than Canada, Alaska and Hawaii) are with those entities that are in 
Europe, Asia, South America (and a couple of Africa) and that it's harder 
(?) for them to sign up for LOTW, or just not as enticing to do so (as per 
one of your recent e-mails).  However, look at contests that are USA 
contests for me (such as California QSO Party, Sweepstakes CQ and SSB, and 
ARRL 160m and Stew Perry, also a 160mtr contest)(and I don't make much, if 
any, contacts outside the North American continent on 160mtrs), and you'll 
see that they're not heavily QSLed on LOTW by the USA stations, as compared 
to many of the RTTY contests where you can work anyone, and that means for 
me lots of USA contacts.  Look at the difference between the NAQP CW and 
RTTY contests, where I would have contacted stations in the same North 
American area, but on different modes.

Anyway, there are my stats for 2006.  The way I do the updating from the 
LOTW info is a time-consuming process, so I'd not recommend it for those who 
don't like to spend lots of time in front of the computer keyboard.  I did 
leave off a few of the smaller contests which I participated in but didn't 
have very many contacts (one where I made 6 contacts and got a certificate 
for my efforts because I was the only one in my state that sent in a log 
<GRIN>).

Alan - N7BF