[PaQSO] 06 rules'n stuff

[Mike Coslo]

Hello all

    This is a sneak preview of the upcoming rules for the 06 party.

    There have not been major changes to the rules, and there may be a 
few more before publications, but here we go:

    Technician/Novice class has been removed. Lack of interest (or 
perhaps operating from a multi-op station) on Technicians part, and lack 
of Novices in general has made retaining this class an exercise in 
nostalgia.

    For those of us who want to encourage participation by the new guys 
and gals, I would recommend the "first Timer" category. I would note 
that a lot of people who were eligible last year didn't apply to be a 
first timer. Dunno why.

    The club trophy has been reinstated. I have yet to decide whether it 
will be a nice trophy, or a really nice trophy. More on that to be 
announced later. From the feedback I received earlier, I suspect that 
the interest dropped off due to a few clubs doing most of the winning. 
We'll try to make sure that the "rest of us" will get some recognition too.

    Additions to the rules have been made for the PSK and RTTY segments 
of the party.

    A PDF summary that can be filled out on or off-line, and that will 
calculate your score from your entry info has been produced. It is 
almost ready to go. I would like a few "beta testers" to help me make 
sure the thing is bullet proof.

    Now that we have come to the subject of Summary sheets, It is time 
to unveil the biggest change, although it really isn't a change at all.

    Any log that does not have a proper summary sheet - or summary sheet 
set - will be treated as a check log. If a partyer doesn't submit a 
proper summary sheet, they will be invited to make a correction. I don't 
want to DQ anyone - and I will do my best to help make sure that 
everyone is included - but the rules have stated for a long time the 
need to generate the proper summary sheets. Not doing this stalls the 
production of the preliminary scores, and insures that the deficient 
logs get checked twice; once to generate a summary, and once to check 
the log itself.

    The PDF summary will go a long way toward fixing that. Partyers are 
urged to take advantage of the  on-line form.

    In conjunction with this, *all* partyers will need to submit a 
summary sheet or sheets by regular mail. The experiment with having only 
in-state folks submit summary sheets by mail  proved to be a failure, as 
witnessed by the 40 percent of OOS logs that came in with no summary 
whatsoever. Sending in the logs themselves is still welcome by e-mail

    Floppy disks have been removed from the approved log submission 
methods.A fair amount of computers don't even accommodate the medium any 
more - time moves on. If this proves to be a big problem for anyone let 
me know.

    - 73 de Mike KB3EIA -