[ILQSO] Counties vs 59?

[kevin kaufhold]

First, I want to congratulate everyone who worked so
hard on compiling results in such a quick manner.  I
am impressed at the speed at which results have been
posted. Great job!

Second, does anyone else believe the exchange in the
contest is conveying rather useless info?  In 99% of
the cases, I get "59" for the signal report.  How many
times does anyone else receive something other than
59? Or send out something else than 59?

Has anyone considered just dropping the signal
strength part of the exchange?  We could then have the
out-of-state side of the exchange give their own
county and state. The in-state exchange would also be
county and state.  County x "Illinois" being heard on
the air would effectively distinguish in-state vs
out-state. So, "Madison Ill" would tell the world I am
in-state. "Madison Ia" would inform people it is an
out-of-stater in Madison County, Iowa. 

Even with the current rules as is, several
out-of-state stations each year volunteer to me "59 x
county x state". So, a move to "county x state" may
not be that difficult for out-state stations to
accept.  Many are doing it now, at least on PH. 

Such an exchange might attract some county hunters,
since we would be using a county exchange on both
sides of the QSO. We could even open things up a bit,
and let out-state stations have credit for contacts
with oth eother-of-state QSO's (I don't believe that
is allowed now?) That would really be unique from a
county hunter perspective, and potentially could
become an all-county contest sponsored by the IQP
(just thinking out-loud, here).  

It would also be another way for the uniqueness of the
IQP to come out. I know many people love the unique
rules of NAQP and the Stew Perry, as well as the IQP's
county line abilities. Well, the IQP would become a
bit more differentiated with a "county - state"
exchange, and possibly could draw more attention. 

I am not sure how we would abbreviate the out-state
counties (some have incredible names). Maybe, just
typing in any reasonable spelling of the out-state
county would suffice. It would becomes a computer
programming issue, I suppose. Is there some program
that already contains abbreviations on all 3067
counties?  

So a suggested "county - state" report on both sides
of the exchange might pose a bit of a problem with the
logging programs. But if it is announced early enough,
some of the commercial programs may respond by 10-08.
Many of the programs don't score IQP correct anyway,
and most do not allow for multiple counties on the
same QSO. Perhaps a request to the commercial
programmers might encourage them to correct for IQP
idiosyncrasies.  I know N1MM has an extensive bulletin
board where they thrash through such requested
revisions from contest sponsors. I suspect one or more
programs might update in time for 2008. 

If this has been proposed before, please forgive use
of the bandwidth.  2007 was only my third IQP, so I
don't know much of the wonderful hx of this contest. 
I am happy however to have given out "Madison" in
those three years from my portable location. Not many
others have been on from this very populated county
recently.  Dunno why. 


Kevin
W9GKA


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