[VHFcontesting] Insights to Consider

[Buck Calabro]

K1VU wrote:

> One way to resolve this issue, is to get 
> out our back copies of QST and check 
> the "Line Scores" of the VHF+ contests 
> to see what our League "Decision 
> Makers" have turned in for the past 10 years.

As a computer guy, this is sort of up my alley.  The League's scores
web page is at http://www.arrl.org/members-only/contests/scores.html
and from there, members can (tediously) look at scores turned in for
various contests by looking up each call sign.

I went back to 2002, which is as far as the online scores go.  I
looked at the January, June, August and September VHF+ contests as
well as the November Phone sweepstakes for 2003 and 2002.  That makes
a total of 8 VHF+ contests and 2 HF contests.  Bearing in mind the old
adage about statistics and liars <grin> here are the results in
summary:

Call  VHF  HF  Notes
KM0T   8   0   thru 24GHz
K1JX   2   0   w/W1XX thru 432
W5ZN   0   0
W3ZZ   5   1   w/K8GP thru 76GHz
               solo thru 10GHz
K1KI   3   1   thru 432
N0AX   1   2   50MHz
AA7A   2   0   thru 1296
N7NG   0   0
N1ND   0   0

I think all can agree that KM0T is a VHF contester, submitting logs
for 8 of 8 recent contests.

It gets fuzzier when we look at the stations with the next level of
log submissions: if it were ME submitting 2 logs in 2 years, would the
list consider ME a contester?  That's why it's fuzzy - someone with a
reputation is viewed differently than a beginner like me, but I don't
know everybody so I can only go by the numbers, the same as the
League.  Somebody draws the line somewhere.  I certainly don't know
where to do it though!

It's already been noted that a couple of members aren't active
contesters, and the numbers seem to show that.

This isn't meant to be an indictment of anyone, but an exercise in
trying to understand the numbers.  Because in the end, the League is
going by these same numbers, so if we can find a flaw in this tiny
example, perhaps we can use that to help refine the League's
understanding of the bigger example.

Respectfully,
  --buck KC2HIZ