** PLEASE NOTE - CARL DOES NOT SUBSCRIBE TO THE RTTY REFLECTOR. Please
address private comments to him to k9la@arrl.net, and general discussion
comments to this reflector.
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>From Carl K9LA - NCJ Editor
Last Thursday John WA9ALS posted a message from me to this reflector asking
for comments in relation to NCJ considering dropping the RTTY Sprints due to
the small amount of participation (on average 30 logs received per event).
The responses have trickled to zero, so I think it is time to summarize and
make a decision.
I received 14 responses, and the results were evenly split. For every
response favoring continuing the RTTY Sprints, I received one favoring
dropping them. This by itself doesn't make the decision. So we have to dig a
little deeper.
>From additional info that Jay WS7I (RTTY Sprint contest manager) passed
along to me, it's now clear that the real issue is the fact that less than
half of the participants submit logs. Participation is healthy, as evidenced
by the 100 or so unique calls in the October 2002 running - but only 43
submitted logs. Based on this new information, NCJ will continue the RTYY
Sprints.
But there's a big condition tied to this. Once he is finished checking the
October 2002 logs and writing up the results for the Mar/Apr NCJ, Jay is
stepping down as RTTY Sprint contest manager. Thus I'm looking for a
volunteer to fill this role. If you are interested, please send me a
personal e-mail at k9la@arrl.net. With the next RTTY Sprint on March 9, I'm
looking to fill this ASAP. If no one steps up to take this position by the
end of Wednesday January 15, NCJ will discontinue sponsoring the RTTY
Sprints. Please remember that NCJ is made up of volunteers, so I can't
simply assign someone to this job.
The responsibilities of the RTTY Sprint contest manager are: review/revise
the rules as necessary, set the dates for the events, answer
questions/resolve problems with the participants, work with software
providers to offer a RTTY Sprint contest module to provide a standard log
submission format, receive the logs, check the logs, compile the results,
and write up the results for NCJ. Jay advises that it has taken him 40 plus
hours so far for the October 2002 event, with some more work to go. Log
checking for the RTTY Sprints right now is a very time-consuming manual
process, so it would be beneficial in the long run for the new contest
manager to address this issue, too.
Carl K9LA
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