I would very hesitant to say the NAQP favors the West Coast all the time,
having had some success from Florida over the past couple years before
getting transferred to a ship. Did the W6's have the upper hand during the
recent SSB weekend? Probably this time, but normally it's much more even.
The West Coast often gets an advantage in the NAQP SSB contest in January due
to favorable E/W propagation on the high bands and the ability to pick up
lots of casual operators on 10. The East Coast makes up for alot of that
with huge 20m numbers, as well as low band mults.
This advantage gets negated most of the time in August, when 10m usually only
supports N/S propagation giving the advantage to those in FL and TX.
What's going to happen in a couple more years when 10 goes bye-bye? I
imagine the advantage will shift eastward.
Over the past three years, I succeeded in winning one NAQP and finishing 2nd
twice from a modest station in SFL. Each of those three times the
competition was very tight, with only a few QSOs separating the top places.
Were they all from one region? No - it was a mix from all over - N2IC (then
in CO), N6MJ in CA, W4PA in TN, and N9RV in IN come to mind.
If any region is at a disadvantage it would be those in the far northern
states and Canada where they're more at the mercy of aurora and those in New
England - even N2NC seems to make the top-ten box from there(OK, almost
there).
The NAQP is a fun contest and activity is building every year. It's
definitly not "broken". To have a high power category would fill the band
with huge signals, key clicks, and everything else which turns off the casual
op. Low power adds the challenge when moving multipliers, making that close-
in scatter contact all that much more difficult.
73, Dave N2NL/MM
>NAQP favors the West Coast big time !!!! No way I am going make 400-500
>QSO's and 45 mults on both 160 and 80 to counter what you guys do on 15 and
>10
>meters... We are also are starting to see 40 go long early now which gives
>the
>West Coast even more of an advantage.
>
>
> I don't see how the East Coast would gain any advantage because none of the
>EU QSO's they make would not be multipliers....
>
>I think this the reason why most are against changing SS to one QSO per
>band....
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