Along the lines of the age olde wisdom:
"Don't fix it if it ain't broke"
I say NO to changing scoring formats...I find it fascinating to compare
scores of the last cycle versus the current one - this would be lost if
you re-do the scoring formulae.
I feel that the contesting scores should always be increasing - because
as a collective group we are always learning more and as such becoming
better at it. New technologies emerge - we embrace them and another
jump is made in our cummulative scores... BUT... we still have the
benchmarks of previous contenders as our reference since the scoring
methodology stays the same.
Perhpas this is one more sign of senility setting in - you youngsters
don't go messing with things, etc...
Perhaps this is just a segue into a bait and switch ad for the Florida
QSO Party 2,003 on April 26 & 27...
Naw, this is just me thinking that we should pay homage to the score
records - have you looked at the dates associated with records and how
many seem to last longer than others... sometimes it is for very good
reason - it is because it is intended to be there as a tip of the hat
for a fine performance. Sometimes the records are a function of the
Sunspot cycle and will last for nearly a cycle - that is very cool....
The only way to do this "right" is if you change scoring formats to
recalculate the old scores - and, since they were made by guys
maximizing their operations under the "current" rules of the time they
may no longer be as "impressive" - or they may be "overly" impressive...
When the Florida QSO Party was first resurrected by the Florida Contest
Group we wrote a set of rules, after the first year it was apparent we
had incorrectly weighted the scoring and we re-wrote the rules. What
K1TO did, which I question major competitions like the CQWW could ever
do, was to re-score the previous years' entries and then applied them to
the records so current contenders would know what they were shooting for
in current day point values! K1TO, however, is unique - his efforts
associated with the FQP are unprecedented and anyone who doesn't think
so has not read one of his FQP writeups - contest number junkies could
not ask for more!
Before you jump to try something new, think about what went into getting
where we are now - the ARRL made a catastrophic mistake when it tried to
change the rules for the ARRL DX Competition - they immediately switched
back to the olde format by the next running - learn from their mistake!
And, in case you were wondering, it is 81 days until the Florida QSO Party.
73,
Jim, K4OJ
...bait and switch - isn't that the Salmon Run?
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