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Contesting Online Speak Out


Speak Out: Get those logs in!

A reader wants to know "In this age of instant gratification, should the time between the end of a contest and the deadline for log submittal be shortened?"

40 opinions on this subject. Enter your opinion at the bottom of this page.
[Speak Out Home Page]


Opinions...

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aa7ya on 2002-11-19
Correcting typo's is one reason there should be enough time to get the logs submitted, especially if you've made over 1,000 Q's.

Sometimes when the rate is starting to crawl, I go back over a screenful and correct any mistakes I may catch. If I'm rushing through a pileup, I just wait til I either have a slow rate going or at the end of the contest.

I would rather have a thoroughly accurate log rather than a hastily sent log and end up with dumped Q's because you goofed, instead of taking the time to check for typing errors.

When I finish a contest, the last thing on my mind is submitting the log right away. The first thing I want to do is catch some sleep.

A week or 2 would work for me, but there are still those who prefer to log the old fashioned way and need the extra time to check their log and get it in the mail.

Anonymous on 2002-11-18
What I wish the sponsors to do is to post the date the contest occurred in the results article. I have written to both CQ and QST and neither will do this. To me, by the time the article comes out I have forgotten if I even entered the contest let alone when it was. Why is it so hard to state when the contest happened?

Anonymous on 2002-11-05
If there is interest in increasing the activity of the casual contesting who provides the bulk of the contacts for the rest of us, then a shorter deadline would certainly decrease participation.

n3oc on 2002-10-31
I really do not think this is a good idea. Is speed more important than accuracy now?

Please consider those of us out on dxpeditions. Quite frequently, the travel involved takes a week or two after the contest to complete! And our log this year has an incorrect date on 6000 QSOs, and it will take another week to fix that.

The bottom line is if the deadlines are shortened, it will reduce activity from those that cannot achieve the deadline, and this is NOT good for contesting.

Certainly I would agree that I could meet the deadline sitting at home at my USA station. No problem with that. I would have no problem requiring US stations to have their logs in sooner, but I strongly feel stations outside the USA need the full thirty days.

Please consider the rest of the world in this!

Brian N3OC
President, PVRC

ti2dll on 2002-10-28
I think the problem may lie not in the log submission deadline but in the time it takes for the results to be published.

If you work a multi/multi station full shift over a 48 hour contest you're going to need a few weeks to get your logs together, checked over, typos corrected and such. Besides that, most people combine contesting with a regular life during the week, which means the time for going over logs and fixing typos is limited.

Now, the fact that it takes a year for results to be published *is* IMHO a bit excessive, especially considering that most contests require electronic logs for the top scoring stations.

w7dra on 2002-10-28
i dont know who reads this page, but just coming from operating the oceania 2002 cw test i know for a fact i need all the time i can have to get my log in.

i have TR, a fine logging program, and i am laborously entering in by hand my 550+ contacts from my 1936 rip off copy of the ARRL log book from the QWCA. it has taken me a week to get 250
Qs into the computer. in another 2 weeks i should have my log in correct form to send in. i am busting my butt to get it in on time.
for those of us who flew to England last year for the HA contest with a homebrew 6AG7 vfo mounted in the cabinet of my hw16, electronic log preparation is a great pain. and no i was not the guy in 1974 that complained that no one would work him in SS using his KW1 on 75 AM fone.

if i had to do the OC DX contest as 3D2/W7DRA over again i would be SOSB 80. purely to keep the after contest logging chores down

VE4XT on 2002-10-15
Shortening the log submission deadline should be done by moral persuasion only, not by actually shortening the deadline.

There are lots of valid reasons why even a computerized station needs the time allowed.

And fixing typos is NOT cheating! This ain't a typing contest. Fixing typos is NOT the same as checking callbooks, cluster archives or other external sources to ensure you copied correctly. THAT is cheating.

Fixing VE$XT to VE4XT is not cheating. Checking hamcall to see there is no VE4XP and correcting to VE4XT is cheating.

The anonymous accusations against N4SL are those of a coward and deserve no more rebuttal.

73, kelly,
ve4xt

S55M on 2002-10-09
The log submition time is not a problem!
Publishing the results after one year from the contest end should be.
Two months from the end of ctest should be enough to check logs (even for WW or WPX) and publish the results on internet.
It takes almost 1 Year to ARRL to publish the results of ARRL 10 meter ctest.And after all that time of course only in migthy "Members only" area.
Maybe we should left only the "Members" to do the ARRL 10 meter ctest??????
About the log submition:
My log is ready one second after the contest.
73's and Best Contesting

g0gdu on 2002-09-03
I presume that G0WJN was talking about the excessive amount of time it takes to publish results when he referred to the length of time.

Perhaps some societies should look to DARC for an example.

Having entered HF Field in June entries were sent to RSGB and DARC early in June.

Prior to the closing date DARC publish on their website a list of call signs of stations who have submitted entries. Within two days of the closing date this list is updated with the claimed score. By the end of July DARC publish the adjuducated scores and positions. The RSGB have yet to publish annything despite having a smaller entry.

When recently publishing the reults of a contest with a very small entry the RSGB indicated that all entries had been submitted electronically. However, despite this, it had taken a significant amount of time to publish the results.

With regards to amending logs post-event I surprised that N4SL is described as a cheat by someone who hides behind anonymity. Whilst not condoning blatant cheats, who are they kidding anyway, I do feel there is sometimes a need to correct known errors before subitting the log for adjudication.

Perhaps I am also to be described as a cheat when I amend my computer log from the various notes I have scribbled during the contest.

Like many I can make typos during the heat of a contest. It is quicker to note this error rather than to try to correct the computer log and lose the break a run. I see this as being no different to corecting errors when transcribing a paper log to ensure the entry is legible.

I feel a contest is about operating skills not typing skills. By all means log what you hear, not what you think should have been sent. You can always ask for clarification if uncertain or QRM causes a readability problem.

WN3VAW on 2002-08-15
I've been fortunate enough to exchange emails with several of the amateurs involved in setting up some of the software to automate acknowledgement of and processing of electronically submitted logs. They've assured me that the technology exists now (and has for quite some time) to accurately compile the log data within hours, even minutes, of the entry deadline, even for thousands of submitted logs.

It's good to know that the means are there and that they've made sure over the years that the system is accurate.

But, I respectfully disagree with the notion that the deadline to submit logs should be shortened. Considering that the results for the ARRL Contests (and no doubt others) will be available on the web, and can be available within hours of the deadline, what's 2 more weeks? We currently wait 6, 8, 10 months... soon we will only have to wait 5 weeks. Are we that impatient that we have to have everything instantly at hand? Are we going to punish contesters who (for whatever reasons) will not or can not invest time and money into their computer systems to get the logs in a lightning speed? I suspect that imposing unreasonable deadlines will lead many to not bother submitting a log, or worse, not bothering to operate at all because it's more of a headache than it's worth to them.

Yes, the technology is there. Yes, we want to know how we did as soon as is practical. 4-5 weeks still seems pretty reasonable to me. 2 weeks seems excessively short.

"That's my opinion. I could be wrong." (Dennis Miller)

73, ron wn3vaw

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