I was the other 40m CW operator for W1AW/4. Out of over 1200 QSO's on that
band, a few over 700
were US stations. Any rules change that would create a disincentive for those
stations to work
their own headquarters station would be a mistake. I believe that this would be
true for any
country's headquarters station.
On the other hand, for stations to line up and work only their own country's HQ
station, I believe,
is outside the spirit of the rules if not in direct violation. (wouldn't they
be "uniques"?) If they
also work other stations, who they work is their choice, isn't it? So, I don't
see thresholds as
really being practical. (Remember the old ARRL DX contests with country
"quotas"?)
Like Doug said, the TCG main objective was to provide a Headquarters QSO to ANY
station regardless
of point value. Doing this may have actually cost us in our friendly rivalry
with sister HQ station
NU1AW/8, but it's what we felt was our primary purpose....and it WAS fun!
73, Ted W4NZ
-----Original Message-----
From: cq-contest-bounces@contesting.com
[mailto:cq-contest-bounces@contesting.com]On Behalf Of Doug Smith W9WI
Sent: Monday, July 17, 2006 12:27 PM
To: cq-contest
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Is it a time to change rulesfor HQstnsin
IARUcontest ?
On Mon, 2006-07-17 at 09:36, Kelly Taylor wrote:
> Do other HQ stations feel the need to complain? (Doug, what say W1AW/4?)
About "manufactured QSOs" in Europe? Not at all. Due to geography, I
don't think HQ stations outside Europe can compete in this contest. And
while I certainly can't speak for the ARRL as a whole or even the crew
that operated W1AW/4 this year, I don't think our uncompetitive status
really bothers us.
The "manual" we handed out before the contest started with:
"Our goals:
To provide the ARRL HQ multiplier to as many IARU participants as
possible. To make a decent score. To have fun!"
Nobody in TCG doubts that we easily accomplished all three goals.
Now, that said, I can see how things might be different in Europe.
European HQ stations *are* competitive, so I suppose there *is* a point
to trying to outscore the other country. (I wonder if having the
contest coincide with the World Cup contributes to that
attitude?<grin>) I can see where they might care about a possible
unfair advantage.
Again, I think it's a concern of unintended side-effects. It's kinda
like the scoring rules in CQ WW, or the prohibition on the use of 146.52
in VHF contests: a rule that's desirable in one part of the world might
make the contest far less enjoyable somewhere else.
--
Doug Smith W9WI
Pleasant View (Nashville), TN EM66
http://www.w9wi.com
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