Summary of what we have learned so far:
1. The once per band QSO rule is one of the things that makes SS unique, but
causes Sunday to be
a grind *for those who choose to operate full time.*
2. There are new stations to work on Sunday (fresh meat) but not enough.
3. Club efforts to get more people on the air, through getting less serious
contesters to get on or to spend more BIC time, or to do SOMS opping,
do get more people on the air but not enough such that Sunday is exciting.
There are three classes of solutions:
1. Suck it up - Sunday is slower in all contests, the Sunday grind in SS is a
tradition and often seperates
win from place or show.
2. Changes the rules - this makes it more fun for those who were likely going
to operate anyway and then complain after.
3. Change the incentives to operate on Sunday - this would make it more fun for
stations that were *not* going to be on.
(1) and (2) have been discussed quite a bit, (3) not so much.
Line scores in QST was mentioned, a pet windmill of mine to tilt at but the QST
editors and financial staff
are hard to budge. Could we get equipment manufactures to sponsor enough ads to
get the line scores in
the May Sweepstakes results issue if we the contesting community lobbied them?
Lots of little guns just
like to see their call in QST (look at the FD results) and searching for it on
the web is *not* same as
getting QST in the mail and opening it up to see your call. It is like the
difference between Googling your
name and seeing your name on a check that comes in the mail...
Or more focus in QST on the casual op, more detailed coverage of the winners
and top ten strategies in NCJ?
Club competition, a la PVRC vs. NCCC, gets more Sunday activity. How about some
equivalent to the
GOTA station at FD to add points to club scores for getting non-members on in
SS?
The WPX has overlay categories that let casual ops see their score a bit higher
than in the standard
categories - another way to encourage casual ops.
Personally, I think there are a lot of ways to increase the total of number of
calls that appear in SS to
make Sunday more fun vs. making SS look like most other contests look.
John K3TN
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