Hi All,
> I am in total agreement with Rob's comments.
I disagree. The unrealistic power multipliers and lumping of all
stations together gives a big advantage to low power stations with
huge antennas.
To prove this, I only operated a couple hours with ten watts. My
score (I didn't submit it) was over half what it was operating the
entire contest the year before on high power. My only DX was
VK6HD.
> For once I calculated correctly. The band was not wall-to-wall with
> stations. The East coast did not get the EU openings. AND, the West
> coast did have the spotlight shine across the Pacific at the very end of
> the contest period.
I certainly had European openings, but running ten watts no one
heard me. 4X4NJ and others had good signals, but couldn't hear
my ten watts.
> I disagree with the comments made that this is a QRP contest. IMHO it is
> a much more leveled scoring calculation than any other contest that gives
> the SPDC a fresh look. It spreads the opportunity of making the top
> scores over a much larger portion of the globe. The top scores of any
> other Topband contest are from Atlantic seacoast areas not far removed
> from large population centers.
Look at the results for the past few years and count the stations in
top who ran high power. The unrealistic bias against power makes
deciding how to win this contest easy. Have good TX antennas, run
QRP, and you are almost guaranteed a top spot.
It doesn't matter how you "hear", or how much DX you work when
the multiplier is so large. That's why European QSO's were down to
nil this year. Everyone is learning the way to win the SP is to run
low power.
73, Tom W8JI
w8ji@contesting.com
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