In addition to the scores,
Publish the soapboxes that make it sound like something fun to do! Or
"trying to get your W.A.S?
Get on this weekend and you can do it in 24 hours etc.
Joe WB9SBD
On 2/11/2026 4:21 PM, Jeff Stai wrote:
I've brought this up over the years to no avail... but a single good step
towards better promotion would be to simply put the contest writeups into
the electronic version of QST. Yes I know they are available to anyone on
the web. Keep doing that, but only contesters go and look at them there.
Putting them into QST in the app at least puts the article in front of the
general ham population that reads QST. The contest writeups in the print
version when I was new got me interested in contesting... also maybe more
contesters will bother to read QST with more contest content. :) And bits
unlike paper are free.
73 jeff wk6i
On Mon, Feb 9, 2026 at 11:07 PM Tim Duffy<k3lr@k3lr.com> wrote:
From: Tim Duffy [mailto:k3lr@k3lr.com]
Sent: Sunday, February 8, 2026 12:07 PM
To: Jon Zaimes, AA1K (jz73@verizon.net); 'Dan Kovatch'
Cc: 'Ward Silver'; 'Jahnke, Bart, W9JJ'; 'ac0w@arrl.org';'ag3i@arrl.org'
Subject: CAC Discussion about Sweepstakes activity
Hello Gentleman;
Last night was the Feb. CW NA Sprint contest. Many stations worked more
than
300 QSOs in four hours. Activity was at an all-time high.
What changed? Promotion. Aggressive emails to CW operators and assembling
teams via clubs and other active participants. Activity problem fixed.
In my opinion, fixing the activity issue during CW SS does not require any
rule changes. It simply needs promotion. Get another 200 or 300 stations to
get on and the contest will be fine - just the way it is.
Thank you for being on the CAC and for your guidance concerning contesting.
73
Tim K3LR
-----Original Message-----
From: CQ-Contest [mailto:cq-contest-bounces+k3lr=k3lr.com@contesting.com]
On
Behalf Of Jim Brown
Sent: Monday, February 9, 2026 12:55 PM
To:cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Should contest ops QRS?
On 2/8/2026 6:54 AM, Mike Smith VE9AA wrote:
My reply to him/all is below his question.
Thoughts?
I represent the Pacific Division (NorCal, NV, KH6) on the ARRL Contest
Advisory Council, and the major topic for the last six months has been
how to save Sweepstakes. Participation has been dropping drastically, as
OTs like you and me have been aging out (I'm 84, my first SS was in '57).
Solving this very difficult problem involves bringing a thousand hams
into contesting, first through the contests with easy exchanges, then
stepping them up to the more challenging SS. Working at the slower speed
that Fred practiced is critical to that effort. For more than ten years,
I've been part of a team with W6GJB and W6JTI that has won SS in 1A
Battery more than half of the years we've entered. We work only CW, our
speed tops out at 26 WPM, and we'll slow down for slow callers.
There's a LOT more to contest math than sending speed. All of us who can
work faster need the little guys, the new guys, to work. This problem
shows up late Saturday night in SS (my rate went into the cellar around
06Z, causing me to hit the sack before 08Z, my midnight), and we all
know that Sunday is dreadful. That's NOT because the contest is too
long, it's because our stalwarts are aging out of being able to
participate.
2025 CW SS had fewer logs than 2025 CQP. Think about that when setting
your sending speed. Contesting is no fun when we've run out of stations
to work.
73, Jim K9YC
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