Sunday, especially Sunday afternoon, has ALWAYS been a slow time (to put it
gently) on Sweepstakes as long as I can remember... and my first one was
operating from the college club station in 1975.
While many of the suggestions being discussed have some merit, I'm not sure
that they will actually solve the issue. In my mind, or at least what little
is left of it, the issue is getting more stations on the air and participating
in Sweepstakes.
Some of these changes may significantly change some of the unique
characteristics of SS. The biggest one, IMHO, is the concept of dropping the
"1 QSO Per Station" rule in any form, which moves SS closer to being just
another contest.
If that potential change is taken all the way to '1 QSO per Station per Band",
then the M/M category will soon follow... which actually reduces the potential
number of stations QRV, since some SO and MS ops will instead operate with
their other MM friends as they do in the other major contests.
That is an unintended consequence that I think we should avoid.
SS has some qualities that are unique amongst the major contests.
- A longer exchange (derived from traffic handling) that actually exchanges
meaningful information beyond the standard "59(9) Serial Number" or "59(9)
State/Zone/Grid".
- An emphasis on strategy -- planning your time (and off time) to maximize
stations and mults worked.
- The effects of propagation, especially as it pertains to working multipliers
across the continent
- The lack of M/M stations, limiting everyone to one signal at a time.
And those just off the top of my head. I know there are others.
What we need to do, IMHO, is find out why the unique features and challenges of
SS aren't drawing more ops in. (Is it a problem of perception? Or
advertising?)
Simply saying "oh well, SS ops are aging, too bad" doesn't solve the problem.
The problem is not more contacts from the stations already on. The problem is
not more BIC time for the stations already there.
IMHO, the problem is getting more stations QRV. What do we need to do to
solve, or at least address, that problem?
Get more stations QRV, a lot of the other issues will take care of themselves.
But Sunday afternoons and evenings have always been tough times. Some things
may never change.
73, ron W3WN
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