I must agree with Bud, W2RU, that for most of us the thrill was seing out
score in print. If W3XXX only worked 5 hours but made a substantial score
we looked in the soapbox to see why. If K5XXX worked say 20 hours but did
not have his usual score we looked in the soapbox for the reasons.
Both Bud and I have been in what would be reported in QST as the highlights
most of our careers but we have friends that lived for the day to see their
score in print. Now they have to look on the web...and how long can the web
hold the scores for more than a year or two. I can look up scores of K2KIR
or K5MDX from the late 1950's in print or on a CD of QST. Is there going to
be a way for young KB0VVT to look up her score from 2006 in something in
2040?
PCs rule the contest world so most of us get by with reading the line scores
on the ARRL Web but the PC is very finite. The PC that has housed the CQ
160 Contests died on me this year and I have it back up in safe mode but
prior year files were either lost or the pointers to those files were lost.
I used to save the files on 5.25 floppys, then 3.5 floppys, then Colorado
tape drives and now USB memory keys that hold a lot. But who knows what
will exist in 10 or 15 years. Print may be old fashioned but I can pick up
a 2006 QST in 2040 a read the scores if they are there.
I agreed with moving the ARRL section reports out of QST as it took many
pages each month and most of us did not know the hams in a distant section
and the info was short lived anyway. Line scores from contests are contest
history. Contesters get to know each other better than any other part of
amateur radio. It is sad the line scores are gone from QST (save Field day).
73 Dave K4JRB
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