As someone that SS was his first contest ever done. Way back in 1975.
I can not believe all the crabbing about this. Wow, they complain about
it being slow on Sunday. I do not ever remember hearing anyone complain
about it being slow 20/30 years ago. Whats changed?
All the fancy computer logging, and spotting systems. They Make it sooo
much easier to work everyone. Maybe that's it? Because it is soo easy
now, maybe everyone is found quickly and worked leaving only the non
contesters left to work on Sunday?
How about average number of QSO's made? today vs 20/30 years ago? Maybe
the Sunday dolldrums is simply we have worked everyone quickly in the
first half of the contest! All that is left is the non contesters.
A quick look at the results from 1995 till now, the overall number of
Q's made is pretty steady not varying a whole lot. And thill withinn a
few hundred of the total Q's.
I wish there was a way to see year by year what QSO Rates were for the
whole contest. Maybe it was pretty even rates 20/30 years ago, through
the whole contest, so Sunday did not seem so bad. But Niow ones ability
to get them all in the first 12 to 16 hours leaves nothing to wirk on
Sunday? a Thought?
To help being in New people to the CW weekend,,,,,
How about a overlay class? We have say "SOLP" How about "SOLPS" :-)
Single Op Low Power SLOW. Where just like a QRP rule where you can not
run at any time more than 5 watts. But in this overlay, you can not at
any time run your code speed say at 10 WPM or or more. Good for the
beginners!
Joe WB9SBD
Sig
The Original Rolling Ball Clock
Idle Tyme
Idle-Tyme.com
http://www.idle-tyme.com
On 3/19/2018 10:02 AM, W0MU Mike Fatchett wrote:
I don't receive the NCJ so I have not read the article. What I gather
is that most people feel that the SSB part of the contest is ok but
the CW part is not. If most people feel that SSB fine the way it is,
are people suggesting we make sweeping changes to fix the CW portion
and then possibly breaking both?
The exchange is long. It makes the contest different. This is good.
As stated by many we have plenty of rate contests where copying is not
part of the contest.
I have heard of lots of ideas but none of them really address the
issue which is getting more people involved on the CW side. Their are
plenty of people trying CW or are proficient enough at slower
speeds. Most of the ideas allow more contacts from the same
participants on other bands or by using other callsigns. The reason
the radio/callsign rules were put in place as I understand it, that
when the club competitions were fierce, I don't thing they are as much
any more, people would use other calls and only work their club
members. I get that. Good for them, but not good for the overall
health of the contest. I am sure people still do it, tough to catch.
SO2R changed much of contesting, tough to put it back in the black box.
Is the CW solution a simple as slowing down and encouraging new or
less competent cw ops to want to call you or is the goal to run at
45wpm and work nobody and listen to endless CQ's? Will slowing down
even help? Maybe the ARRL needs to print some articles on
encouraging people to try SS CW and explaining it better?
The last couple hours of SS can be pretty fun. Many people get on
just for that period.
Who are we fixing the contest for? The top 50 or 100 that are the
real competitors or are we making it fun and better for all?
What we could be doing is breaking down the classes and putting the
SO2 elite ops in one category and then trying to figure out how to put
the rest in appropriate categories so we can do a better job at
acknowledging them and creating competition with similar stations and
skills.
NAQP is great for 12 hours. How would it be for 24 hours. I would
suggest that it would get pretty slow on CW. You can always milk SSB
contacts on open bands. Maybe the NAQP folks should give a 24 hour
contest a try and see how it goes. NAQP has been around a long time
now if it was be so great, why has it never been tried?
Changing for the sake of change is not a good idea. Is the contest
really broke? I don't think so. Could it be improved? Maybe. Could
we make it worse? easily! Making large changes would change what the
contest is. I don't think that is a good idea.
W0MU
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