Link to December 2022  SKN CONTEST entries  ...

If you're the sort who embraces one or more of the following ...

1.   Have a penchant for a challenge. 

2.   Feel disenfranchised when your right to fair competition is dictatorially quashed.

3.   Are willing to continue embracing the increasingly-rare concept of common sense.

4.   Rue the loss of old fashioned democracy, fairness and esprit de corps.

then welcome,  you're undoubtedly among friends.   

Please email your SKN Contest log sheet to [email protected] where it will be collated along with those from folk of a like-minded disposition.

The material presented below has not been challenged, despite clear invitations to do so if anything is found to be incorrect.

Draw your own conclusion.

_____________________________________________________________________

Despite a legitimate candidate coming forward to take over its management,
Straight Key Night was peremptorily de-contested just before the December 2021 event.  
That decision has drawn a number of well justified criticisms after statistics
gathered for the past two SKNs have shown a significant reduction in participation.

E & OE          Do your own research,  if the graph is demonstrably wrong - tell me so it can be corrected.

Has anybody considered that SKN can easily be run for both types of
operator preference, exactly how it had been for the previous n years?   Apparently NOT. 
Maybe that's a really, really difficult concept to grasp or is just a 'bridge too far', as someone
suggested, which made him sound resigned to meekly accepting a deeply flawed situation.

But it couldn't be simpler  -  CW aficionados submit their log sheet
and those wanting to participate on the night as a casual  ...  don't.

Where is the problem people?  Why is everyone so desperate to be
dictated to when there was and still is a willing volunteer to manage the event?

Dig deeper and think logically:  there can be only ONE REASON why
someone would deliberately and selfishly deprive fellow hams of their pleasure,
while with the same stroke of the pen,  turn democracy into collateral damage.

No need for a PhD in psychology to understand the dirty politics at play here.
Somebody felt threatened by a significant change in traffic pattern on NZ Net during the first half of 2021;  a fall guy had to be found for causing such a dreadful state of affairs and a target was close at hand.  Who better than the 'intruder', who had the temerity to start sending traffic every night on a traffic net, and had then offered to manage the SKN contest?     Let's try to kill off this upstart. 

How about we call a spade a spade, eh?   What we have is plain old school-boy bullying, revisited in adulthood when most learned long ago that it is not only a juvenile response, but also repugnant.  When this sorry attitude permeates an organization there can be no winners, instead everyone is made to lose.

There are two rather good clues to understanding these childish machinations by looking at two other examples of the same behaviour:  the first is Net Tip 81, (possibly) a symptom of PAPD but dressed up to look like fatherly advice and earn kudos, when in fact it is a thinly disguised attack on the hapless fall guy.
 The second comes from an old adage all could do well to remember ...

Here is an opportunity to redress that regrettable unilateral decision to de-contest SKN.
Why not take an active role in resurrecting SKN as a contest?   Nothing to lose, plenty too gain!    The downloadable log sheets will ensure uniformity.   Luddites like me are not clever enough to type directly into a worksheet while operating a radio, therefore I choose to hand write onto a paper log sheet and transfer the details later.  Both types of log sheet
are provided to help eliminate the problem of sometimes-illegible handwriting.

Excel SKN log sheets   

Two worksheets in one file;  enter your data accordingly.  

The June log sheet has one line filled as an example.
  Delete the blue print or simply replace it with your own as you go.

Printable SKN Log Sheets in PDF format

June

December

When complete, please email your Excel or paper log sheet to  [email protected]  within 14 days of the event.   Entries close sunday 18 Dec 22.   Your entry will be scored along with other log sheets from like-minded OMs.  That way we may be able to resurrect what used to be an enjoyable classic among ZL CW ops.   There is the offer, open to all, non-discriminatory and intended only to give everyone a fair go,  as well as to provide hard evidence to either prove or disprove what comes across as desperate propaganda.

It might take a further twelve months for word to get around, but the numbers will eventually prove whether there is majority interest in having the SKN 'phoenix' rise again to contest status, or whether tenuous-loyalty and flawed doctrines are more important.  
The choice is yours.

If there is to be any relief from the quite unnecessary, unilateral toxic politics,  it would behove us all to refresh our memories concerning The Amateur Radio Operator's Code of Ethics,  take it in board and then to act in a more gentlemanly way.

The adjective 'amateur' (not a noun)  neither precludes professional behavior nor implies
puerile nonsense is acceptable.  

Two obvious examples: 

1.   Demonstrate the minimum of good manners by extending the simple courtesy
      of at least acknowledging other people's emails, without exception well-intended.  

2.  Quit the intimidating practice of completely unnecessary QRQ, then when others
     are having trouble, rapidly switching from QRQ to extreme QRS and back again,
    seeming only to demonstrate ego-driven superiority by trying to make
    others look incompetent.     It's another great way to attack the hapless fall guy.
   

   You don't believe me?   Listen out for it, others have commented, so it's not
    born of imagination.   What has ever been wrong with consistency and respect
    for the other fellow's limitations?      Sorry, please excuse my cynicism, but maybe that's
    far too old fashioned a concept in these enlightened days of me, me, me, 
    so it's hardly a mystery why NZ Net membership remains static despite the emergence
    of so many new CWops.   Consider clause two of  'How the net works';  such courtesy
    is applied only for the occasional check-in.  

  

    The WHOLE NET should give consideration to new-comers by reducing speed   ...  
    instead of ego-stroking displays of quite unnecessary QRQ.   
   
   

                      If any factual errors are detected in this document/proposal, don't sit there
                     grumbling about it, do something, make contact.  A reponse is guaranteed.

                                   Questions, comments, or constructive criticism to [email protected]  please.

                      Be advised, it is the responsiblity of the sender to ensure messages have been received.
                     If there has been no acknowledgement within 48 hours,  please sent again.
                      Contrary to my experience, everyone does deserve the courtesy of a reply    ...   even if
                     the sender seems to be talking bollocks.  Most misunderstandings can be resolved   ...
                     but it takes two to do it.

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