[NLRS] NLRS First Gavel !

[jcplatt1 at mmm.com]

Well, it took some time, but the Northern Lights Radio Society has won its
first gavel for its Unlimited score in the 2004 September VHF contest.
That's right, we've won a gavel !    For those who may not be familiar with
gavels, here is the cut & paste from the ARRL General Contest rules:

   8.10. The highest scoring active affiliated club entry in each category
   (unlimited, medium, local) will be awarded a gavel.

Affiliated club completion was added to the September VHF contest starting
in 1999 and since then there has been NO club that has placed in the
Unlimited category (51 logs or more) until the NLRS did it in 2004.
Because the NLRS was the first to do so, it caused a bit of a snafu in
reporting at the League ..... here is today's note from Dan, N1ND,
regarding root cause analysis:

   "Hi again Jon: I have dug into the query, and as I suspected, the NLRS
   was the first to broach the Unlimited category in the contest and the
   software didn't flag the >50 entries. Different software queries are run
   for each contests. I have corrected the query. The web site has already
   been corrected with some re-wording as well. The PDF will be corrected
   before it is posted to the website and a feedback item will be printed
   in an upcoming QST. I again apologize for not catching this.

   73 , Dan Henderson, N1ND, ARRL Contest Branch Manager"


If you go to the ARRL website you will see that they have already corrected
the web report.   Unfortunately the QST article has gone to press, but a
feedback item will be added.

All NLRS members should feel proud in attaining this significant goal.
There are not a lot of clubs with gavels.    In addition I would like to
pass my thanks on to Rich, N0HJZ, who's significant work and energy helped
us to establish this significant goal for the club ..... many thanks Rich.

73, Jon.
W0ZQ