[VHFcontesting] Pack Rovers meet ARRL contest objectives

[Kenneth E. Harker]

On Mon, Aug 15, 2005 at 09:40:44PM -0400, n2lbt at n2lbt.com wrote:
> Please, I would no sooner give out my rover strategy than would ND3F  
> or W3IY. This is a contest, and just like everyone else, my logs are  
> between me and the ARRL and apparently a select few that claim to  
> have impartial and private access to them. Maybe you can ask one of  
> them.

I admit that I don't understand this idea that contest logs are or should 
be proprietary or secret.  I don't actually read anything in the contest 
rules that says the ARRL agrees to keep logs secret.  In fact, General
rule 2.4 says "All entries become the property of the ARRL."  If the 
logs are ARRL property, they can do with them as they see fit, including
posting them along with the line scores, if they wanted.

As far as I know, the ARRL hasn't been granting access to the logs to just
anybody - the only people I've talked to who have access to the logs are
N1ND and, obviously, the log checkers.

As others have mentioned, most HF contest operators I've talked with,
including direct competitors at the highest levels, are more than willing 
to share logs, ideas, experiences, offer station tours, share photos, etc.  
It's a very different culture.

The main reasons, in my experience, for someone not wanting to share log
information are if they were working primarily one station, if they 
work a very large number of "unique" stations (stations that nobody else
in the contest logs) especially if those uniques result in additional mults, 
if they used the DX cluster system but are claiming their score in an 
unassisted category, or if they are just embarassed that they might have 
a very high error rate.

How does keeping your log data secret protect your contest strategy?

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