K5ZD survey

WPX SSB/CW Contest Survey 2009

One of the responsibilities of managing a major worldwide event such as the CQ WPX Contest is to understand the opinions and motivations of the participants. Who are they? How do they operate? What do they think about the rules? What are their ideas on how we could improve the contest?

On August 8, an invitation was sent by email to over 9000 addresses from log submissions in the 2008 and 2009 WPX SSB/CW contests. We have been very happy with the fast and enthusiastic response! 

We now want to open the survey to all contesters.  If you have not already responded to the WPX Contest Survey, go to http://wpx2009.questionpro.com and follow the instructions!  Please take the survey only one time.

The survey will close on September 10, 2009.

Thank you for your interest and support of the WPX contest. We look forward to reading all of your responses and comments.

K5ZD commentary

All Bands or Single Band?

We would like to believe that all contesters are very conscientious in preparing their log submissions.  They would carefully review the header fields of their Cabrillo log and make sure everything is exactly as it should be.  Many do, but some do not.

This leaves the log checker with a dilemma.  Do we correct the possible mistakes in the header fields? Or do we allow the errors to flow into the results and then hear the complaints from the participants?  We could always point back to the log submission and show the category mistake was theirs, but this may impact the results in a category and it doesn’t create perfect results in the magazine.

In the 2009 WPX SSB contest, there were 56 stations that submitted their log in the ALL band category, yet all of their QSOs were made on a single band.  There is nothing in the rules that prevent this.  But, we have to wonder if submitting as ALL was a mistake or by intent…

We have decided that for any single operator log where all QSOs are made on a single band, we will change the category of that log to single band.  E.g., if all QSOs are made on 40 meters, we will change the log to CATEGORY-BAND: 40M. 

The logic is this.  The log meets all the requirements for being entered as single band. There is no reason that this fact should not be acknowledged in the results. Entering in the single band category often gives the score a higher place in the results (or a certificate) than when competing with the all band scores.

The logs received page will be updated as we make these changes.

If you really really want your single band log to be entered in the ALL band category, make a note in the SOAPBOX comments, or send an email to director@cqwpx.com.

Note: If you make QSOs on multiple bands you can still enter for a single band.  Include ALL of your QSOs in the log and then make sure the CATEGORY-BAND field is set to the single band you want to enter. We will only count the QSOs on the selected band for your score.

K5ZD announcements

WPX CW 2009 High Claimed Scores

The complete listing of high claimed scores for the CQ WPX Contest CW 2009 are now available at http://www.cqwpx.com/claimed_2009_wpx_cw_scores.htm.

Scores shown are those claimed by the participants.  Not all scores are calculated correctly. For logs where an entrant did not provide a claimed score we have substituted their calculated score before checking. Paper logs received by post are not included.

The purpose of the high claimed scores is to give entrants an opportunity to confirm that their entry has been submitted in the correct category and to get a first look at the competition.  Please send any corrections or questions to k5zd@cqwpx.com.

A team of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers are helping to type all paper logs into the computer so they can be included in the computer log checking. Thanks go to WA1Z, W1UE, W2JU, K2DSL, W1KQ, W1ZT, KM1P, NJ1F, W1TO, W4AU, W1KM, N8RA, and N1NK. Couldn’t do it without them!

By the time all of the paper logs are entered, the WPX CW will have achieved a record number of log submissions with over 3600 logs!  Checklogs are still welcome to cw@cqwpx.com.