Doc # 33
Contest
Advisory Committee
Semi-Annual Report
For the
American Radio Relay League
Board of Directors Meeting
July 2003
Submitted by
The CAC has received no assignments from the MSC in the past year. It is our understanding that there may be forthcoming an assignment related to the review of VHF/UHF contests rules. The committee will welcome any and all assignments from the MSC.
There was an "unofficial" meeting for those CAC members attending the Dayton Convention this past May. Several topics from among those suggested by various CAC members prior to this meeting were discussed at some length. A summary of this meeting is attached. Though several ideas for further discussion within the CAC were identified, no specific recommendations resulted.
Attachment 1
CAC Meeting -- Dayton, May 17, 2003
Members of the CAC meet in an informal session following the Contest Dinner in Dayton on Saturday evening May 17th. Present were Rus, K2UA, John, W2GD, Ward, N0AX, Don, K4ZA, Greg. K9IG, and Joe, W5ASP. (*) In addition Tom, K1KI our Board Liaison, Dan, N1ND, Staff Liaison, and Wayne, N7NG, Membership Services Manager, attended.
Our discussions were confined to the three selected topics described in the agenda that had been sent out to all CAC members during the week prior to Dayton. These agenda items are listed below.
As this was just an informal session among only a portion of the full CAC membership, no specific conclusions or recommendations resulted from this meeting. However, a couple of ideas for possible discussion within the CAC were identified. These will be taken up later.
Topic 1 -- ARRL's Web-Based Contest Reporting
The consensus appeared to be that this feature was being well received by both the general ARRL membership as well as by active contesters. It was noted that the information available to non-ARRL members was somewhat limited in that non-members cannot access the searchable score database nor read the "expanded" write-up. The full text of the QST article and the line scores are still available to all.
The feeling was that consideration should be given to modifying this situation so as to open up total access to non-members after some prescribed time interval following the full release on the Web. In addition, several suggestions were made relative to expanding the content of the searchable database, e.g. including information on time-on-the-air, number of band changes, etc.
Topic 2 -- SO2R
Ward, N0AX, summarized the results of his recent study of an extensive collection of data on the use by contesters of SO2R. His conclusions were: (1) the advantage of SO2R is mode depended ... it's strictly a CW thing; (2) there is no advantage in the Low Power category; (3) The choice of High vs. Low Power is more significant than the use of SO2R; and (4) it's just another technology thing, following in the footsteps of memory keyers, computers, CAT/Auto-Tune, and stacks. Ward's full report will appear in NCJ.
There wasn't much interest expressed in further inquiries into this topic. Ward's data seemed to speak for itself. However, including specific reference to the use of SO2R in the ARRL database appeared to be a possible follow-on item.
Topic 3 -- Non-W/VE Club Competition
This didn't seem to be a "hot bed" of interest. There simply doesn't appear to be any practical means of categorizing non-ARRL groups, nor any way to hold such groups to the same standards as applied to W/VE clubs. Random reports of scores would be meaningless. CQ magazine has a long established program for reporting club scores which should suffice.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. Thanks to all who attended.
* There were no formal minutes taken, hence there may be mistakes in the list of those present.
Joe, W5ASP
CAC Chairman
West Gulf CAC