[UK-CONTEST] Re QTC in WAEDC RTTY

[Oliver Bock]

Hello Ian and all,

On 14 Nov 2008 at 8:33, Ian Maude wrote:

> Thanks John, I understand the exchange (I think) but I am no closer
> to 
> understanding the concept.  Why would one do such a thing?  

I think looking back into the history of the WAE and its predecessor from the 1930s, 
will bring some light into the purpose of qtcs. The first contest to use the concept of 
qtcs, to my knowledge, was the "German DASD Jubilee DX-Contest 1936", 
commemorating the 10 year anniversary of the DASD, the german Amateur radio 
club at that time. It ran over 5 full weekends during August of 1936. Of course 
preparing and sending logs was more difficult than today, without email and 
computerized logging and of course 5 weekends in a row to work a contest is a 
long time. So the Contest Committee devised something to get information about 
DX-qsos as soon as possible and invented the qtc exchange to get this information 
from the logbook of the DX-station quickly to the log of a European station.
You can find the original rules (also in English) and results here: 
http://www.darc.de/referate/dx/archives/djdc1936.pdf

>If you
> were 
> running on 20m for example, you could put down  LOT more points than
> waiting for QTC's to be read to you surely?  I just cannot get my
> head 
> around it.  

I think there always comes a point during a WAEDC weekend where it becomes 
more difficult to run and put down a "LOT more points". On the contrary, think about 
situations, surely on a sunday, the second day of WAE contest, where it is really 
hard to find new DX-stations to work. In the end, a complete series of 10 QTCs is 
worth as much as finding and working, or running and working 10 new stations you 
haven't worked before during the maybe first 24 or 30 hours of the contest.

73
Oliver  DJ9AO / M0TAO