Why would all the 24 hour guys work the first 24 hours of the contest?
That doesn't make any sense at all. Much more likely is that they
would try to pick hours that optimized propagation for contacts and
multipliers, and that would be different for every operator because of
different QTHs ... especially when you take into account different band
preferences.
It seems to me that a 24 hour category would essentially replace
potentially unhealthy (fatigue, circulation, cycle disruption, etc)
butt-in-the-chair boredom with additional degrees of freedom from a
strategy point of view. Particpants would have to choose their hours
carefully to maximize rate and multipliers taking into account both
propagation and prime time hours on the other end (which don't
necessarily overlap depending upon the band). They'd have the
opportunity to tailor their hours to wring the most out of the
capabilities of their antennas (not everyone has cannons on every band),
and they'd have the opportunity to work in sleep periods that would
allow them to chase key multipliers during hours they might normally not
operate.
It seems to me that a 48 hour contest where fully 90% of the
participants operate less than half that time is not really a 48 hour
contest anyway. In any case, for the great majority it isn't a test of
skill ... it's a test of endurance. Those are two radically different
things. Adding a 24 hour category would simply recognize that fact, and
it would only be necessary to add it for SOAB and SOAB(A) since almost
by definition the single-band and multi-op entries don't really need it.
Based upon the data I could easily foresee that the 24 hour categories
would become the most popular by far .... so how does that become a bad
idea??
73,
Dave AB7E
On 3/30/2013 6:35 PM, Tom Osborne wrote:
But, what if all the 24 hour guys operate the first 24 and then quit? That
would make for a boring weekend for the 48 hour guys. 73
Tom W7WHY
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