[VHFcontesting] Sports vs. Radiosports

[Kenneth E. Harker]

On Sat, Sep 04, 2004 at 12:02:18PM -0400, Ev Tupis wrote:
> 
> Wouldn't it be interesting to expand on the WRTC 2002 system of real-time 
> score reporting (thanks to an ARRL staffer who pointed me to that link, 
> btw)?

The WRTC real-time scoe reporting was done by the referees at each contest 
station.  They manually sent in their team's numbers as an SMS text message
on a cell phone once an hour, which was automatically updated on a web site 
(to which the competitors had no access during the contest.)  One of the 
glitches in this system was that one of the teams using CT had misconfigured 
their logging software, and the resulting claimed score that their referee
was sending in was much higher than it really should have been.

The challenges to a system of real-time scoring for most contests (not 
just those with referees at each station) are:

(a) software support to automatically connect to some central server,
(b) running and supporting some central server for this purpose,
(c) managing all the ways that the system will be abused (malicious score
    posts, erroneous score posts, attempts to use it as a spotting system, 
    attempts to take it down, etc.)
(d) figuring out how to deal with stations that will never have any kind
    of real-time network connection during the contest - rovers, SO/P 
    stations, mountaintop M/Us, etc.
 
> Then let's look at expanding Cabrillo to include pertinent information so 
> that you don't HAVE to ask.  Here's where VHF is different than HF 
> contesting. Enhance Cabrillo to include the following on a band-by-band 
> basis:
> 
> 1. RF Output
> 2. Antenna Gain
> 3. Antenna Height (above ground)
> 4. Height Above Mean Sea Level (not of the antenna, but of the ground it is 
> on)
> 5. Height AAT
> 6. Operator Experience (count the number of contests they've entered)

Aside from the fact that most HF contesters have the same power output level
on each of the six HF contest bands, none of the rest of that is uniquely 
of interest to VHFers.  Almost all HF contest stations have different 
antennas on different bands (even the tribander and wires class stations) and
antenna height matters for HF (albeit in some different ways) as much as it 
does for UHF.

Most contesters who submit Cabrillo logs today do not even submit SOAPBOX
comments, so getting the majority to volunteer detailed band-by-band 
station descriptions will be challenging - probably the same people who
write SOAPBOX comments will be the ones who describe their station.

You could make it compulsory, but that would just make the log submission
process that much more work, inviting the less committed to put it off and
maybe never find the time to submit their log at all.

> Make that information publicly available.  For that matter, make the logs 
> publicly available (GASP!).  Golfers score cards are available for 
> scrutiny! What's the big deal?

The logs should be publically available (after the submission deadline for 
the particular contest, of course.)  You might get push-back from DXers,
though - publishing log details could invite unethical practices among 
DXers looking to claim QSOs they never made, but look to have made (perhaps 
because of busted callsigns.)

-- 
Kenneth E. Harker WM5R
kenharker at kenharker.com
http://www.kenharker.com/