[SMCARA] North American QSO Party

Sat Jan 10 12:32:40 EST 2015

Dave,

Good question.  First, I would encourage you to submit a log.  It’s not hard to do and can be done on-line.  I can help you with that if needed.

The NAQP is not an ARRL contest – it’s sponsored by the National Contest Journal, but like most contests there are penalties if you make an error in your log.  The contest robot compares all the logs and ensures that both the sent and received exchanges are the same.  Generally, if the other station is in error, it won’t count against you (though you will lose the QSO points and any multiplier that QSO gave you), and the other station will not only lose the QSO points, put will be penalized.  Conversely, if you are in error, not only will you lose the QSO points, but the contest sponsors will deduct additional points as a penalty on your log. 

One nice thing that the ARRL and CQ do is provide a check-sheet on their websites (and only viewable by you) that tells exactly which QSO’s had problems (at the bottom of this post is the log-check report for my ARRL DX Contest).  This lets you know how well you really did in the contest and where you can improve.  As you can see, I had a 5.4% error rate, which resulted in a 14.4% reduction in my score.  From the report, you can see that I need to improve on copying the calls correctly.  

Its good to submit your contacts on LotW (which I also do – one doesn’t preclude the other), but that submission doesn’t count towards the contest.

Tom Shelton, ND3N

LOG CHECKING REPORT FROM WWW.ARRL.ORG

The ARRL is pleased to announce the availability of Log Checking Reports

(LCRs) for selected ARRL contests.  We recognize that it is useful to

participants to review the errors found in their logs, allowing them to

identify areas for improvement in their performance. In order to

minimize additional manpower and avoid the inequities, we have

established guidelines regarding how we will address queries.

Simply put, we will not enter into discussions or debates over

individual QSOs. All electronic log data is checked using custom

software. All logs are judged by the same criteria. The log-checking

software can and does perform a good job of impartially adjudicating the

logs. Unique QSOs are not busted without substantial evidence. Audio

tapes, wave files of particular QSOs, email confirmations from others,

or other types of "documentation," while useful for a contester's

research and learning, are not usually definitive and will not be

considered. If a systemic problem is found, we will address the issue as

appropriate.

There have been a few rare occurrences where log files were corrupted

during transmission to the ARRL. If your report reflects an unusually

large decrease in QSOs that you suspect may have resulted from a log

file transmission error, we will be happy to investigate. The Cabrillo

format Start-Of-Log and End-Of-Log statements are the means that we use

to verify that the log arrived intact. We will deal with these problems

as necessary.

LCRs will be available for selected events, commencing with the 2001

ARRL November CW Sweepstakes. Please keep in mind that the style and

format for each report may differ between various contests, as the

various contests are checked and processed by different software. If you

have questions, please feel free to contact us at contests at arrl.org or

by phone at 860-594-0232.

Thanks!

ARRL Contest Branch

========================================================================

Contest:    ARRL DX CONTEST CW 2014

Call:       ND3N

Category:   Single Operator, All Band, Low Power

Location:   MDC

************************** Summary ***************************

      92 Claimed QSO before checking (does not include duplicates)

      87 Final   QSO after  checking reductions

     276 Claimed QSO points

     249 Final   QSO points

      58 Claimed mults

      55 Final   mults

   16008 Claimed score

   13695 Final   score

  -14.4% Score reduction

    5.4% Error Rate based on claimed and final qso counts

       1 (1.1%) duplicates

       4 (4.3%) calls copied incorrectly

       1 (1.1%) exchanges copied incorrectly

       0 (0.0%) not in log

       0 (0.0%) calls unique to this log only (not removed)

********************** Results By Band ***********************

            Band   QSO  QPts Mult

   Claimed  160M     0     0    0

   Final    160M     0     0    0

   Claimed   80M     0     0    0

   Final     80M     0     0    0

   Claimed   40M    34   102   20

   Final     40M    31    84   18

   Claimed   20M    39   117   21

   Final     20M    37   108   20

   Claimed   15M     6    18    4

   Final     15M     6    18    4

   Claimed   10M    13    39   13

   Final     10M    13    39   13

   Claimed   All    92   276   58    Score     16,008

   Final     All    87   249   55    Score     13,695

*********************** Incorrect call ***********************

7004 CW 2014-02-15 0326 ND3N            MD PJ5WG          500 correct     PJ5W        

 7003 CW 2014-02-15 0408 ND3N            MD YU5D            KW correct     YU5R        

 7030 CW 2014-02-15 0417 ND3N            MD 9A2A            KW correct     9A2AJ       

14007 CW 2014-02-16 2133 ND3N            MD IS0HQ          100 correct     IS0HQJ      

*************** Incorrect Exchange Information ***************

14034 CW 2014-02-16 2158 ND3N            MD F5NBX          400 correct  500

********************** Lost Multipliers **********************

14007 CW 2014-02-16 2133 ND3N            MD IS0HQ          100 correct IS0HQJ     

 7004 CW 2014-02-15 0326 ND3N            MD PJ5WG          500 correct PJ5W       

 7003 CW 2014-02-15 0408 ND3N            MD YU5D            KW correct YU5R       

*******************  Multipliers by Band  ********************

160M multiplier total 0

80M multiplier total 0

40M multiplier total 18

9A    CM    CN    CU    DL    EA    HA    HK    I     LZ    

OK    OM    ON    PY    S5    SP    UA    V2    

20M multiplier total 20

DL    E7    EA    EA8   EI    F     FY    GI    HA    I     

LZ    OK    OM    ON    PJ2   S5    SP    YS    YU    ZF    

15M multiplier total 4

CX    HI    LU    PY    

10M multiplier total 13

9A    DL    F     G     GM    HA    I     LU    LZ    PJ4   

PY    TI    Z3    

************* Stations Copying ND3N Incorrectly **************

14008 CW 2014-02-15 2257 EA8ZS         1000 ND3R            MD

28026 CW 2014-02-16 1644 IR1Y           500 ND3D            MD

28031 CW 2014-02-16 1652 TI5W          1000 ND3D            MD

14023 CW 2014-02-16 2146 YU5R          1000 ND3W            MD

14026 CW 2014-02-16 2148 PJ2T          1000 ND4N            MD

7008 CW 2014-02-16 2303 HA8JV         1000 ND3D            MD

From: Dave Q [mailto:quickskys at gmail.com] 
Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2015 10:35 AM
To: Tom Shelton
Cc: smcara at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [SMCARA] North American QSO Party

Tom, general question about contesting.

I was reading the ARRL HF Contesting Guidelines yesterday and saw that mistakes in logs can cost points to the other station even if it's your fault.

What happens if I make a contact with someone during the contest but don't submit a log?  Does the other station get penalized because I didn't submit a log?  I have only been using LOTW and don't intend to submit a log to the contest.

I don't want to mess someone else up.

73 

Dave - W3DLQ 