[SECC] My First Sweepstakes - the continuing saga

[Sherman Banks]

I learned to contest during my first year at Georgia Tech back in 1982. 
  We had a computer program that ran on the Cyber mainframe computer 
that was very sophisticated in exchange entry, duping and multiplier 
tracking for the time.  The problem is that the Cyber mainframe would 
always crash sometime during the SS weekend.  The downtime was always 
several hours which made the use of this technology unacceptable.

So, we used paper logs and a poster dupe sheet that was on a card table. 
  There were two people at the operating position with a Y cable on the 
headphones so each person could monitor the audio.  The main operator 
filled in the log and made contacts.  The dupe operator updated the 
sheet with the call of the current QSO and would notify the main 
operator if the current contact was a dupe.  Remember, back in the paper 
days we had to have a clean log or clearly mark dupes in the log for the 
contest sponsor.  We may work another station again if they were 
insistent on a contact.

The poster dupe sheet was organized in a spreadsheet format with the 0-9 
call areas down the left and A-Z across the type.  If K4BAI called you, 
the dupe operator would look in the B column and move down to the 4 box. 
  If K4BAI was not there, the call was entered.

It made for great camaraderie and a time for a good pizza party with 
this team oriented effort.  It also gave the dupe operator a chance to 
watch a good operator run a pileup.

When desktop computer logging program became popular, one operator does 
the work of two.  It made the team operating not near as fun since the 
dupe operator turned more into a second radio multiplier operator 
looking for the needed sections.  The result was that these operators 
did not work as closely together.



John Laney wrote:

 > I used paper dupe sheets until I got my first laptop for contest 
logging in 1993.




John Laney wrote:
> I used paper dupe sheets until I got my first laptop for contest logging 
> in 1993.  I never got more than about 3 QSOs behind on the logsheet as I 
> tried to keep it up to date continuously.  I used to tape down two of 
> the ARRL large size dupe sheets to the operating table, one with 1-5 and 
> the other with 6-0, so I didn't have to turn the one sheet over 
> constantly.  Good memories, but I don't want to return to that for a 
> major contest.  I still do some smaller contests that I don't have a 
> logging program for with paper log and dupesheets, if needed.  73, John, 
> K4BAI.
> 
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