As in the previous years the percentage of QSOs not covered by HAM logs has been very low, thanks also to the fact that in an SWL log both the logs of station heard and of the correspondent station can be used for checking.

But the HAM log must be correct otherwise a right QSO in an SWL log should be marked wrong by the cross-checking software. And this year I had to correct 125 HAM logs, including big guns, like IS0/OM3LA, GM7V, EJ0GI, CU1T, RI1AA, CS9T with incorrect data in the log.

It is a mistery for me how the people who manages the HAM logs for the IOTA Contest can check the HAM logs and provide the final results with this low quality of logs.

By the other side the SWL logs has been in general of good quality. The more correct SWLs are shown in the following table.

Tanio JA4-4665/1 virtually won again, followed by Roman OK1-31457 and Josef OK1-11861. These results do not provide plaques or awards, but, of course, a more correct log means more points. And, as previously pointed out, in at least one category won the SWL with more points together with a more correct log instead of the SWL which declared more points.

Another interesting table can be the following, where I calculated the QSO/hour for each participant. The hours in the table are the actual operating hours during the Contest and the QSOs are the declared QSOs. Vilmantas LYR-794 won also this virtual category while SWL Bob Rossi reached the second place.

The UBN (Unique-Bad-Not in log) Report consists for our Contest in the original Cabrillo log with a marking at the end of each row, as follows:

_OK_ = the QSO hrd is OK and corresponds to the HAM log
???? = log(s) not available
RPRT = the report or the IOTA Reference does not correspond to the HAM log
NIL_ = the correspondent’s call is not OK (Not In Log)
ERR_ = there is an error of band or mode
TIME = the time has an error of more than 15 minutes
4SWL = the correspondent's rule has not been respected

The rows with ???? has been counted as OK.
As already pointed out, when there were few points of difference in the score of two SWL logs, I accurately checked the rows marked wrong (e.g. RPRT, NIL_ and ERR_) against the rows of the correspondent HAM log. And, as usual, I found that very often the SWL log was right and the HAM log was wrong.
I will be glad to send a copy of UBN Report to anyone who will ask for it.

Hello,
I just sent my IOTA contest log...but I am not sure if I have to calculate my score (since the DQR log didnt showed my score), or the checking software will do this automatically?
 
73!
Iliya LZ2F319 (LZ4UU)

Hi Iliya, don't worry about the claimed score, yes, the checking software will do this.
(The Contest Manager)

Hi!
How on earth my score is only 123,546 out of claimed 242,046 ?
Have you really received the full log with 262 QSO´s and 113 multipliers. 
Amazing, that some scores are same as claimed scores, but mine is only about 50 % of claimed. Something must be totally wrong.
It looks that 50 per cent of my QSO´s are dupes, against correspondent rule or something, or worked outside operating time. Mamma mia.

73s de Kari OH2 836

I already answered by e-mail to Kari, which kindly recognized that several multipliers in his log were dupes. I publish this message to explain to all that, according to the rules, a multiplier is "each IOTA reference on each band and on each mode". This means that a IOTA Reference on the same band and same mode can be counted only one time as a multiplier. You can put in the log the same IOTA reference on the same band and same mode but this QSO will count only for points, not for multipliers
(The Contest Manager)

Hello Dan,

One question to you dear friend :
Did you have send me the IOTA-CERTIFICATE yet ? ? ?
Or not at the present time ? ? ?
Because I still waiting for it !
I did not receive the IOTA-CERTIFICATE ?!

Pse info. dear friend and let me know pse ! ! !
Mny tks in advance and apologize me for my disturbance.

Have a nice sunday and my vy best regards
73´s de SWL Roland Dlabac ADXB OE-527

This message from Roland, dated 4 May 2008, showed up an issue finally solved after several problems. I have to say that Ant IZ8CCW, the President of MDXC, shipped (for two times !) the certificates from his Post Office but nobody received anything. At last he sent me new certificates and my Post Office appeared to be more efficient and finally Roland (and I hope all) received their certificate. If anyone did not receive his certificate or plaque, please send me a note.
(The Contest Manager)

Conditions are very poor in contest.

Vladimir Kupriyanov, UA0-103-16

A great contest with plenty of activity. thank you to everyone for organising it.

Gordon Hurrell, GM21056

Very bad conditions. hope it will be much better next year.

Tanio Sugihara, JA4-4665/1

Good conditions, good contest.

Allen Willie, VO1-001SWL

Hi Dan,

I've just found your e-mail among spam messages. :-)
Yes, I agree to change the category if I'm not late yet.

73, Roman, OK1-31457

This is the answer of Roman to my e-mail when I asked him if he wanted to change from 24-H to 12-H category because he operated for only 9 hours. Anyway, as explained in the Contest FAQ, everyone can choose his time-category, also in a similar case.
(The Contest Manager)

Sri, only 123 QSOs this year due to lack of time during the contest. But as they say: the important thing is not to win, but to take part. See you in IOTA 2009!

Jan Kraus, OK1-34856

Very good contest. See you again friends.

Ing. Dusan Hanak, OK2-9329

Hello Dan,

OK on SWL logs and score correction. That is OK, my first time in IOTA SWL contest. Next year I will do better. I hope for better HF conditions too!

I had fun!
73 Bob, SWL Bob Rossi

Bad news from the IOTA HQ's which do not accept yet the SWL Logs for the IOTA Listings and awards. This time I asked directly Roger G3KMA, and he answered as follows:

Hello Dan

Unfortunately we still have a large number of jobs to do on the software, some of which are very high priority. The team is very small consisting just of Dominic M0BLF and Martin G3ZAY. Dominic has a first priority to complete the work for his PHD and Martin has just in the last two weeks had a close family loss that has stopped all his work on IOTA. There is no one else.

If Martin has said that your request will be considered, then I can do no more. Please accept his undertaking. There is no point in pressing further as it will not achieve anything. Many jobs are already being postponed to 2009, so you must probably expect this to apply to your request.

Sorry I cannot give you any better news at this time.

73 Roger

So, we will expect the 2009.

The next IOTA Contest will be run on 25/26 July 2009 and the full rules will be published, as usual, in the MDXC/SWL site.

The IOTA SWL Contest Manager
Dan Rolla, I1-12387