Indeed, it has been interesting to read the different viewpoints.
Now, I'll present THE SOLUTION to this problem. It came to me on Monday
morning, 21 February, while perusing the ARRL DX scores on 3830. It was the
result of realizing that I had been soundly trounced by many stations,
including _low power_ entrants, several of whom also got more sleep than I.
The solution: eliminate all national (US/VE) awards. Recognize the winners in
each ARRL Division and Section (including second, third, etc., places as
appropriate). Do not emphasize the top national score, since it is only
relevant regionally. (This does not mean eliminating national awards for DX, of
course).
Think of it: those poor W1s need no longer suffer ignominious defeat at the
hands of those horrid (fill in the blank: VY2s?). The highest scoring W1 gets
the same certificate as the top VY2. Problem solved.
Bonus: us "third rate lids west of 90 degrees W longitude" likewise will now
compete against similarly handicapped operators, with the regional high scorer
receiving appropriate recognition. The increasingly unequal
geographic/demographic effect is thus normalized. Elegantly simple!
Why hasn't this already been implemented? I'm "absolutely certain" this has
nothing to do with the headquarters location of the ARRL (and CQ Mag?) in the
Northeast corner of the US. Perish the thought.
Likewise, I'm "absolutely certain" that the noticeable decrease in ARRL DX
enthusiasm from W6/W7 that I've observed over the past decade is simply an
aberration, and not a byproduct of the drastically reduced effort/result ratio.
I won't complain that there are far fewer casual local operators, and those
that do get on, do so for fewer minutes; after all, this gives me more
bandwidth to call those low-rate CQs toward the Pacific/East Asia. Well, after
changing propagation forces the east coast to run Eu on another band, anyway.
ARRL DX (once my favorite contest)... change the format? No! Change its
reporting and emphasize regional effort!
(My apologies to non-English speakers struggling to decipher my sarcasm)
73 de Bob, K6XX
www.k6xx.com
-- "Robert Shohet" <kq2m@earthlink.net> wrote:
It has been interesting to read the different viewpoints in this discussion.
[cut]
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