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Re: [CQ-Contest] When it's over, it's over (again)

To: cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] When it's over, it's over (again)
From: Ward Silver <hwardsil@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2016 10:18:20 -0600
List-post: <cq-contest@contesting.com">mailto:cq-contest@contesting.com>
> If it wasn't a penmanship contest then, why is it a typing contest now?

At the risk of setting off a "plastic owl pointing true north by remote control" thread...

Why is it that we have contests at all? It is to practice our ability to communicate and to reward effectiveness - in whatever form that takes. Part of it is knowing when the bands are open and closed. Part of it is assembling a station that works well. Part of it is having good operating technique. And part of it is accurately transcribing the exchanged information into whatever format is required.

We are fond of claiming that contesting makes us good public service operators and all that back-patting we do for ourselves. Imagine we are relaying orders for prescription medicines needed in a disaster area. Is a typo in "hydrochlorothiazide" acceptable because we were in a hurry? ("Can you give me that phonetically before the band closes?") Is mistakenly changing a dosage of 50 mg to 500 mg OK because we hit 0 twice? ("Whoa - how did that huge hairy bat get in here?") Of course not...we would recognize that as an error and we should do so when N0AX gets changed to N0XA. Each unforced error needs to produce negative feedback so we will work to lower our error rate. The CQ WW introduction of penalties for errors was exactly the right remedy for sloppy operating because it provides both carrot and stick to operate at a rate no faster than what optimizes effective operating. Nothing is error-free but a three-QSO penalty has a way of focusing the mind.

At any rate (so to speak), anything noted during the period of competition is fair game for log correction. I would prefer in the long term that QSOs are submitted in real-time and verified shortly thereafter so that this whole notion of "log" goes away along with all the misbehavior and delays it engenders, but in the mean time, transcription into the submitted record of competition is as much a part of the contest as transmitting the information in the first place.

73, Ward N0AX
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