On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 03:51:00PM -0700, Jim Neiger wrote:
> And I would like to see this contest go back to 48 hours.
Was it ever 48 hours?
Not since I have been a contester - but I will have to defer to Jim on this
point.
> Surely you could operate the entire 48 hours.... What
> happened?
I like the fact that we have 48 hour contests.
I do not want the CQ WW or the ARRL DX or other contests shortened.
But I think the WPX was a more interesting contest when it was a 30 hour event.
The first time I did the WPX contest in a real effort was from K5TM's
station in about 1981 or so. I did a 15 meter single band effort. And
I recall walking around under the towers on Sunday afternoon really
wishing I could be on the radio instead of taking more of my 18 hours
of off time.
Over the years I kept operating this contest and I began to really see
how the 30 hours of on time and the off times really made the contest
unique and interesting. It also had the effect of making it possible
to do well in this contest from many different locations on the planet
- not just the ones close to Europe. I grew to really like the fact
that the 30 hour WPX contest was different not just in the way the
scoring was setup but also because of the 18 hours of off time.
I still do this contest - and I will be doing it next weekend. But the
extra 6 hours of on time is not really part of what I like. I will
say that the huge rates are fun now that the USA guys call you on each
band but I never did mind when we got zero points for USA.
One of the great things about contests as they are setup is that the
rules and lengths are different across the many major events. This is
great - in a way it is like getting to race on different tracks in
NASCAR or play on different golf courses or run in different foot races
of different lengths in diffed cities. It makes them unique. The 30
hour WPX was more different and in my view better than the 36 hour one
is now.
--
George Fremin III - K5TR
geoiii@kkn.net
http://www.kkn.net/~k5tr
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