[UK-CONTEST] IOTA Contest Adjudication

[Donald Field]

Stewart asked (wishful thinking!) if the provisional results are available 
yet. What follos is for the benefit of those who missed my update at HFC.

For the last two years I have burst the odd blood vessel trying to get them 
ready in time for the HF Convention (which was the weekend before CQWW). 
This year it was two weeks earlier, so there was no question of getting them 
out by then. As it happens, I collected the last two paper logs from an RSGB 
staff member at HFC, and these have yet to be typed up. So adjudication 
won't actually start for a week or so yet. The first run is a check of all 
checkable QSOs (last year we were able directly to check 57% of entrants' 
QSOs - I expect the percentage to be higher this year). From that I expect 
about 15,000 instances where the two sides don't tally. Then the serious 
work starts - going through those 15,000 and deciding which side gets 
busted!

In parallel, we have a number of 12 hour entrants who actually operated more 
than that, so some checking to do there. Also a number of island entrants 
who didn't give the name of their island or, in a few cases, named an island 
that isn't in the directory - in one particular instance it looks as though 
the operation may well not count for the reference number being given. And 
we are still chasing a number of entrants whose logs were in "unusual" (!) 
formats. I'd also like to get Soapbox on the web page within the next couple 
of weeks.

I'm currently aiming for mid- to late-November for adjudicated results (I 
don't actually know what "preliminary" results means in this context).

Hope this helps.

73 Don G3XTT
IOTA Contest Manager