If you don't want to hear me whine, click "back" and don't read..
I think contests are fun. Mostly because they test my ability to
make contacts on my little 5w QRP battery powered station. Sometimes
I camp out in the desert, sometimes I OP from my own mini ranch in
Phoenix. In every case, I'm QRP, single op, battery powered, working
by flashlight at night, and logging with a PENCIL on a piece of PAPER.
But I've had bad experiences with a couple of contests lately. They
just aren't able to accept logs in simple text format. I've even transposed
the info from hand written into a simple TXT file which, for heavens sake,
should be viewable on anything from an etch-a-sketch to a Univac.
But the contests I've participated in this year simply weren't able
to deal with it.
More and more, it seems not just the high scorers, but the average
players are moving toward all automated computerized logs that automatically
format into cabrillo, yada yada.
Just plain grumps me out that plain old-fashioned text logs can't/won't
work with these contests. Double grumps me out because I actually
score very high, even out scoring some of the QRO power stations
with their beams and air conditioning and soft chairs..
Rant off.
Craig 'Lumpy' Lemke
www.n0eq.com