On the 3830 reflector, Andy N2NT asked:
"...Anyone for moving the Feb sprint an hour earlier or to 160m? Well, at
least till the spots come back..."
Interesting ideas, Andy.
In the Northern California Contest Club's annual Sprint "Ladder"
competition, there are three competitive categories. One is strictly for
NCCC members but the other two divide the U.S. into two groups: stations
East and West of the Mississippi River. Apparently someone recognized that
there must be some geographical/propagational bias that warranted these
groupings. Also, the Ladder competition is held across 20/40/80 and 160
meters. Applying the NCCC Ladder competition's categories to the claimed
scores for the FEBRUARY Sprint CW for the last 5 years shows some
interesting details.
# stations in top 20: West of the Miss East of the Miss
2005 16 4
2006 17 3
2007 14 6
2008 13 7
2009 14 6
# stations in top 10: West of the Miss East of the Miss
2005 9 1
2006 9 1
2007 8 2
2008 6 4
2009 8 2
# stations in top 5: West of the Miss East of the Miss
2005 5 0
2006 5 0
2007 5 0
2008 5 0
2009 5 0
To no one's surprise, I'm sure, these statistics show a pretty clear
advantage for stations West of the Mississippi River in the February CW
Sprint.
Let's look at the statistics for the last 5 SEPTEMBER CW Sprints:
# stations in top 20: West of the Miss East of the Miss
2004 9 11
2005 14 6
2006 9 11
2007 10 10
2008 8 12
# stations in top 10: West of the Miss East of the Miss
2004 4 6
2005 8 2
2006 6 4
2007 4 6
2008 6 4
# stations in top 5: West of the Miss East of the Miss
2004 2 3
2005 4 1
2006 4 1
2007 3 2
2008 4 1
The September Sprint is much more equitable but it is still tough to break
into the top 5 if you are East of the Mississippi.
So, to follow up on Andy N2NT's question:
- Should there be any changes made to the February Sprint?
- Should the February Sprint start an hour earlier?
- Should 160m be added? (or replace 20m?)
-or-
- Should Sprint results simply be reported with different/additional
categories? (sorry, Tree!)
73, Ted W4NZ
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