#30

Semi-Annual Report

For the American Radio Relay League
Board of Directors Meeting

July 2002

Submitted by

Ned Stearns AA7A
Chairman, CAC

The CAC has completed all previous tasks and is currently awaiting a new assignment from the MSC. There were discussions earlier in the year between the CAC chairman and the new MSC chairman about an assignment related to the review of VHF/UHF contests rules. The committee is ready to undertake any assignment from the MSC.

Several members of the committee participated in the Contest Forum at the International DX Convention in Visalia, CA in April. After a short brief on cabrillo log submission statistics and an overview of the recent rule changes to Club Competition in ARRL contests (enabled in part from efforts of this committee), an open forum was held with active participation from the attendees. The panel received the following suggestions regarding contest-related services provided by the League.

1. It was suggested that the League expand the capability of the contest log robot. Such as:

• Include in the log submission acknowledgment email a link to the ARRL contest web page or, if possible, to the related log submission/claimed score results page for that contest, and

• An email thanking novice (technician?) or first time contest entrants for joining in ARRL contests. Sometimes it takes only the slightest amount of positive feedback (even from a "robot") to encourage a lasting relationship with a newcomer to ARRL-sponsored activities.

2. Sort scores in contest result lists by the number of hours participated in the contest. Contest operators do not always have the ability to put in a full effort but dislike being ranked only by total score.

The committee did not conduct any unofficial annual meeting at Dayton this year due to the limited number of members that were in attendance this year.