Agreed. However, choroba received the correct error message when running the same code. I have just tested and I also receive the correct error:

$ perl 11161659.pl 
Error GETing https://contests.arrl.org/: Can't connect to contests.arr
+l.org:443 (certificate verify failed) at 11161659.pl line 12.
[download]

Can anyone reproduce what Marshall has reported?