[EIDXA] DX Marathon Changes

[Joe Hetrick]

Hi guys,
	It was my intention to make the meeting, but, I didn't.

	I mentioned earlier in the fall about some changes to the Marathon scoring.

	Basically at this point parsing peoples .csvs/xls/ods files has been an bit of a moving target.  With CQ's standardizing of the mode field as a drop-down (SSB, CW, Data), I think that takes a bit of fun away from the clubs leader boards as it'd give us just "Data" instead of RTTY/JT65/PSK, etc...  What I propose is a simplification of the process.

	The new entry site will no longer parse user files, instead, there will be a simple form that people fill out with their totals:

	Total QSO
	Total Zones
	Total SSB
	Total Phone
	Total RTTY
	Total PSK, etc.

	The original reason for doing the file parsing is I thought that it would encourage people to turn their logs in to CQ at the end of the year if they were already using the CQ files to track their QSO's.  At this point, I don't know if that is really incentive as it may be just as fun for some folks to see how they stack up with other EIDXA members.

	A second change I propose is to create a new "Associate" class.  This will keep track of *all time* new contacts.  The thinking behind this is that we have several new members, and, it's maybe not so fun competing with Honor Roll guys who are retired, have no life, big antennas, 5KW, etc.  For folks who haven't worked them all, I thought that it would encourage participation for EIDXA members who maybe even haven't gotten DXCC yet.  I felt that adding a class that was slightly separate from the main would allow folks who are more casual, or, are still working towards that first 100 a place to score.  I don't propose that you needn't have DXCC to work this, but, the assumption is that folks that have worked within 100 of Honor Roll, or so, are going to have far fewer "new ones" to work than folks that haven't, giving those members a chance to put up some big numbers relevant to their own quests.
		
	The logging will be the same; I'll simply add another column to the Total QSO, Total Zone's, etc, and make it be "All Time New" or something.  Folks will then enter that number as they enter their other totals.  If I can come up with some other way to differentiate that score, I will.  I'm open to ideas.

	
	I'll try to get some samples of this worked up and post to the list.

73,

Joe KC0VKN


-- 
Joe Hetrick
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