Indeed. So why did the ARRL reject the idea of Single-Op (Assisted)
categories for IARU, ARRL 160 and ARRL 10? Too expensive mailing out
all of those additional certificates, they said. No wonder, since they
snail-mail them at full first-class rates.
But back on point, why not send all certificates by e-mailing a .pdf
file, with mailed certificates only for winners who ask specifically?
Want it on 60-lb parchment? No problem. Bigger? Smaller?
73, Pete N4ZR
Check out the Reverse Beacon Network at
http://reversebeacon.net,
blog at reversebeacon.blogspot.com.
For spots, please go to your favorite
ARC V6 or VE7CC DX cluster node.
On 3/31/2013 11:16 PM, David Gilbert wrote:
Why are there "too many" categories now? It's not like participants
are segregated on the playing field ... we all send the same reports
and work the same frequencies in an almost totally transparent
manner. Nobody can tell which category we are in until after the
contest, so please explain the downside of having lots of categories.
We don't get money for placing high, and I'll bet most of us don't
even care about certificates. Contesting is purely a hobby and all we
care about is competing on a reasonably equitable level.
The ONLY downside I can see to having additional categories would be
whatever amount of extra work it caused the sponsors. Other than
that, I don't see how anyone gets much of a feeling of accomplishment
for beating competitors that didn't even play the whole game.
Certainly the 48 hour guys should feel great about beating other 48
hour guys, but the overwhelming percentage of the players they beat
didn't even really compete with them. It's not even an endurance
contest if it doesn't apply to more than 90% of the entrants.
So what's the downside to additional categories if they represent a
significant percentage of the participants? Please be specific.
Dave AB7E
On 3/31/2013 7:34 PM, somata90924@mypacks.net wrote:
Just how many catagories do we want? There are too many now. Lets
make it a Low Band /High band entry-- 160,80,40, (Lowband)....then
let's make that assisted, non assisted, then lets make that LP/HP,
then lets make that rookie or non rookie, now do they use a beverage
or not?.... Non Beverage or no beverage,,,JUST how many catagories
does one need?
Joe, w6vnr
-----Original Message-----
From: David Gilbert <xdavid@cis-broadband.com>
Sent: Mar 31, 2013 2:18 PM
To: cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] How many hours do SOAB entrants actually
operate?
Why would all the 24 hour guys work the first 24 hours of the contest?
That doesn't make any sense at all. Much more likely is that they
would try to pick hours that optimized propagation for contacts and
multipliers, and that would be different for every operator because of
different QTHs ... especially when you take into account different band
preferences.
It seems to me that a 24 hour category would essentially replace
potentially unhealthy (fatigue, circulation, cycle disruption, etc)
butt-in-the-chair boredom with additional degrees of freedom from a
strategy point of view. Particpants would have to choose their hours
carefully to maximize rate and multipliers taking into account both
propagation and prime time hours on the other end (which don't
necessarily overlap depending upon the band). They'd have the
opportunity to tailor their hours to wring the most out of the
capabilities of their antennas (not everyone has cannons on every
band),
and they'd have the opportunity to work in sleep periods that would
allow them to chase key multipliers during hours they might normally
not
operate.
It seems to me that a 48 hour contest where fully 90% of the
participants operate less than half that time is not really a 48 hour
contest anyway. In any case, for the great majority it isn't a test of
skill ... it's a test of endurance. Those are two radically different
things. Adding a 24 hour category would simply recognize that fact,
and
it would only be necessary to add it for SOAB and SOAB(A) since almost
by definition the single-band and multi-op entries don't really need
it.
Based upon the data I could easily foresee that the 24 hour categories
would become the most popular by far .... so how does that become a bad
idea??
73,
Dave AB7E
On 3/30/2013 6:35 PM, Tom Osborne wrote:
But, what if all the 24 hour guys operate the first 24 and then
quit? That
would make for a boring weekend for the 48 hour guys. 73
Tom W7WHY
_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
_______________________________________________
CQ-Contest mailing list
CQ-Contest@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
|