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Contesting Online Speak Out


Speak Out: When is the contest over?

Contests have definite time periods...when the bell tolls, what further steps do you take to "improve" your log? How far is too far when it comes to post-contest log massaging?

34 opinions on this subject. Enter your opinion at the bottom of this page.
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Opinions...

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N7OAK on 2010-04-05

Anonymous on 2007-05-10
When you are done.

K3MD on 2005-02-11
I was SO happy when they came out with computer logging... it took me 20 hours to manually dupe 2200 contacts made from W1HUY/VP9 in 1977. I check Writelog periodically during the contest for question marks and rarely wait more than 24 hours before submitting the log. I do not believe in post-contest log-checking, or in the use of non-published databases for the Sprint and NAQP. Use of the check-contact function during the contest should pick up a lot of errors.

Anonymous on 2004-12-02
no hamradio want to see feeds of online rtty or packet online like a web page. feeds like acars of talk and digtal. no one will send you a radio for hamradio like to get or it dont hook up to a computer us for packet. or any thing. and if you have tit. you can see tv a handheld. or send with a scanner. or decode scanners.

Anonymous on 2003-11-03
Being late is never the same as being on-time no matter what the situation. The honor system implies honesty, integrity. If you know your watch is going to be wrong, then pay attention to it. A contest that ends at 0000Z means just that - period.

Anonymous on 2003-07-01
WA6AZP wrote, "As for when the contest really ends - it is not hard to set that digital watch accurate to the
second, and over 48 hours it should still be within a second or two. Some contest rules mention
"rubber clocking", but there has been really no excuse for running more than a few seconds (less
than 10) over the stop time."

Running over the end of the contest because your clock was off is not "rubber clocking". Rubber clocking is when you changed (by a minute or two)the logged time on QSOs surrounding a band change. This was done to make it appear that you spent the required ten minutes on the new band before changing to another. The clock's accuracy in this case moved back and forth, hence the term "rubber".

Anonymous on 2003-07-01
Since we use TR Log with a Laptop it is already neat when the contest is done.

n2ea on 2003-07-01

At the end of the contest period, it's
over. No typo fixing. No note based
adjustments. Submit it, period.

During the contest period, adjust the written record however you like. There is a time penalty for errors. You should pay it by fixing them when the clock is running.

It is true that in the "old days" before computer logging, large M/M stns spent several days cleaning up logs which were unreadable, or obviously incorrect. That doesn't make it right.
It was cheating then, it's cheating now.


Anonymous on 2003-06-29
The freakin' contest is OVER, how about a new question?

Anonymous on 2003-06-23
As for when the contest really ends - it is not hard to set that digital watch accurate to the
second, and over 48 hours it should still be within a second or two. Some contest rules mention
"rubber clocking", but there has been really no excuse for running more than a few seconds (less
than 10) over the stop time.

Taking time to make your log neat and legible is not cheating. There is nothing wrong with
log checking after the contest -- removing the duplicates, computing the scores, etc. is still
reasonable, either on a computer in 30 seconds or by hand for 30 hours.

Similarly, changing the format of the logs seems reasonable -- for example, if you logged in local
time (manually or on the computer), but are sending the logs in in UTC. You are just changing the
way the same time is displayed. Changing from paper to readable paper, or to electronic form is
similar -- changing the form is distinctly different than changing the content.

Remember, entering logs from paper to online form for submission is considered legitimate, at
least by arrl (they then require it to meet the requirements of electronic logging). I have
spent several evenings over a period of a couple weeks after the contest entering the logs, and
writing software to convert that to proper cabrillo form for the arrl -- only to discover that
they don't really accept that, and their software is buggy, so I spend a few more days dealing
with that. (Since they stopped publishing results, I no longer have the problem
-- I stopped sending in logs.)

However, using other sources (such as the internet, packet, or spotting nets) to determine who
you worked are as invalid after the contest as they are during the contest.

Alan
wa6azp

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