[VHFcontesting] ARRL Contest Branch makes online certificates available

[Alex]

On 2018-07-12 11:00, Peter Laws wrote:
> Plus a further watering down of the "value" of
> a certificate by awarding more of them.

The wording on the web page does indeed indicate this:

"Certificates are available to all contest entrants who submitted a log 
before the due date for a category other than a checklog."

I just checked it out and put in some call signs from the 3830 list and 
it indeed generates certificates for every entrant no matter how low the 
score.

Until now, it was reasonable to assume that if you saw an ARRL contest 
certificate that the person put in a reasonable effort and got a good 
result. Now you have to read the fine print as it could be a single 
digit score for placed 28th in the section.

I tend to agree that this diminishes the value of the certificate.

Not only that, the web page seems to print certificates for entries not 
covered by the Awards section of the rules of the contest! I guess the 
Award section of the Contest Rules can be dropped now. The phrasing 
"[category]  in each ARRL/RAC Section where significant effort or 
competition is evident." is meaningless now. For the 2017 September VHF 
contest I can print a certificate for someone with a single digit score, 
and who placed 4th in an ARRL section.

73,
--Alex KR1ST (FN21fk)