Folks,
Complete results for the DX Multi-Op and DX Single-Band categories were not
printed in the QST version of the 2008 ARRL DX Phone writeup because all of
the tables (Top Ten, Regional, Club Competition, Plaques, etc) were
mistakenly left out. The error was due to a misunderstanding about who was
going to add the tables to the article. By the time the error was
discovered - one day before sending QST to the printer - a full page of
coverage had been reallocated to other articles and it was not possible to
recover it.
The tables are a required part of the article, so the unpleasant decision
had to be made about what to text cut. The writeup author (N0AX) made the
decision to remove the full block of text instead of significantly rewriting
the entire article so as to reduce its volume by nearly 25%. It was felt
that using the full text wherever possible was better than having limited
text that differed between the two versions of the writeup; print and
online. Obviously, some of the stations whose efforts were not reported in
QST don't have the same perspective and it's easy to understand why they
might not see things in the same way, absent any information about how this
all came to pass.
Fortunately, unlike the old days, 100% of the full article, including the DX
results removed from the QST version, is available in the Web article. That
version should be available within the next couple of days. The online
version of all contest results should, in general, be available
simultaneously with the QST version, but the annual Board of Directors
meeting and internal work on the ARRL Web site delayed the conversion to
HTML of this particular article.
Omitting such a significant portion of the writeup is not a permanent policy
for DX Contest coverage. We appreciate that some might feel slighted by the
omission and very much regret that the process of delivering a complete,
high-quality writeup went awry in this way. There will be steps taken to
avoid similar mistakes in the future since we all have the same goal - to
conduct the contest and report the results with high standards and quality.
73,
Sean Kutko KX9X - ARRL Contest Branch Manager
Ward Silver N0AX - ARRL DX Phone Results, Lead Author
73,
Sean Kutzko KX9X
Contest Branch Manager
ARRL - The national association for Amateur Radio
225 Main Street
Newington, CT 06111 USA
(860) 594-0232
email: kx9x@arrl.org
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