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[CQ-Contest] Level Playing Field and Geography

To: cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: [CQ-Contest] Level Playing Field and Geography
From: Jim Brown <k9yc@audiosystemsgroup.com>
Reply-to: k9yc@arrl.net
Date: Mon, 25 May 2015 12:24:18 -0700
List-post: <cq-contest@contesting.com">mailto:cq-contest@contesting.com>
On Mon,5/25/2015 10:57 AM, W0MU wrote:
In 30 years how many times has that happened? In 30 years what is the percentage of Atlantic/East Coast winners compared to the rest of the field. I suspect these numbers strongly favor the East Coast/Atlantic region.

From Steve's website:

I've operated FD QRP with a tribander and low dipoles from a 5,000 ft peak near Monterey, CA. I could hold a run frequency for most of FD on CW, and had rates around 70/hour at the end of the contest! It's like stealing candy from a baby. In Steve's case, it's like being at least 1,500 miles closer to whoever you're trying to work.

Yes, Steve's a great op, but his QTH is worth a lot. Another great op, Trey, N5KO, turns in winning scores for domestic contests from a similar site (see W6NL) at the edge of Silicon Valley. When I lived in Chicago, anyone operating there was much louder than anyone from W6.

Someone (Randy or Doug?) did an excellent presentation to CTU in Dayton this year that I watched online. In it, he showed all the entries for CQWW plotted as dots on a world map. The greater the distance from the Atlantic Basin, the fewer the number of dots.

That map is powerful support for my thesis that the current scoring rules are bad for contesting, because they discourage participation by anyone outside the Atlantic Basin. Look at W6 as compared to the East Coast. California is 12% of the US population. I'd bet that fewer than 1% of US entries in CQWW are from W6.

Look at VK/ZL -- population 8% of US. Look at Asia. Even more telling -- look at the writeup in CQ. Top scores are listed by US, by EU, and "World." Why no listings for SA? For OC? For AS? For AF? The answer is simple -- they're not in the "old boys' club that makes the scoring rules! Why do stations in PJ, P4, etc. not bother to try to work SA (and stations in AF not bother to work AF)? Simple -- it's a 1 point Q, while the rest of the world is 3 points and has a lot more mults, and you've got to turn your beam to work them.

The scoring rules define the contest. For major DX contests, they are badly broken.

73, Jim K9YC
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