FYI,

In regard to the strong position taken by Coy’s “friend” in Texas against false signal reports in some ARRL-sponsored contests, I became curious about how the typical member would feel about this subject.  I took a poll of the GLD through my monthly e-letter to members.  The pattern of answers I received was a little surprising to me so I thought I’d share it with you FWIW.

I asked Division members to answer if these reports should be banned (YES vote) or not banned (NO vote).  A YES vote was to be accompanied by an outline of how a ban could be accomplished.

A number of replies included discussions of how the member preferred to have the issue handled by replacing the signal report with alternate information (e.g. grid square, year licensed, sequential Q number, etc.).  As a result, I’ve added a third category of answers to the NO and YES categories.  This third category is ALTERNATE REPORT.

Obviously the poll is not scientifically based and my addition of the third category post facto is totally unscientific.  I believe we can draw impressions from the poll, however.

Results of 205 votes cast:

NO vote:                                 150 (74% of voters)

ALTERNATE REPORT:        49 (24% of voters) – exchanging grid squares or other information was suggested to avoid false reports

YES vote:                                  6 (2% of voters) -- without suggested method to implement)

My takeaways from the poll:

- Relatively few GLD members are particularly interested in the issue.

- The general result is that ARRL not attempt to ban automatic 59/599 signal reports.

- Even though this option was not offered in the poll, one-fourth of GLD members that responded to it say they do not like the idea of ARRL giving even tacit approval to exchanging false reports in League-sponsored contests and that the signal report should be replaced with alternate exchange material.  My guess is that this percentage would have been higher if the poll had been worded to include the ALTERNATE REPORT category.

- Very few GLD members believe ARRL should attempt (in some unknown way) to ban, per se, the practice of giving false signal reports in League contests.

Other than the fact that dropping signal reports and replacing them with alternate information in relevant ARRL-sponsored contests would be something different, I don’t see any reason at this moment such a change should not be considered.

73,

Jim

Jim Weaver, K8JE, Director

ARRL Great Lakes Division

5065 Bethany Rd.

Mason, OH 45040

E-mail: k8je@arrl.org; Tel.: 513-459-0142

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