At 12:28 PM 3/12/2004 +0000, Randy Thompson, K5ZD wrote:
A few random thoughts following the ARRL DX Phone contest.
- Why don't the Carribbean expeditions transmit above 7100? There were some
clear frequencies around 7101-7102 and 7106 that would have been out of the
European QRM and still easy to locate for those of us listening down. OA4SS
was on 7102 for awhile and he was much easier to copy there than when he was
down in the mess.
I operated K5NA on 40 meters quite a bit in the SSB contest, and tried
always to announce "listening on 70XX and this frequency." Only got one or
two VKs on my transmit frequency. Not very productive. In the future, fhe
new 40 meter band plan should help to spread out the DX stations. At
present, 40 is a madhouse in the DX spilt band.
- Is the ARRL contest too long? 48 hours is better than 2 weekends, but
would 24 hours be even better? As it is now, there are only a few
competitors at the top of each category. Everyone else is in participant
class. Would shortening the contest enable more guys to compete seriously
(i.e. be on for the whole contest)? Or is this "contest" run as a DX/WAS
chasing promotional activity?
I would suggest keeping the 48 hours to encourage DXpeditions and
multi-ops, however for the Single Ops, I would support a 36 hour
maximum. Like the WPX as someone said. That puts strategy into it.
Jim N3BB/5
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