On Thu, Apr 10, 2003 at 05:48:38PM +0000, k4rxr@att.net wrote:
>
> As much as I hate the idea of a creating a lot of classes with little
> participation in each class, to an extent, that approach may increase total
> participation. That's the goal, isn't it? And the only way to know is to try
> it. Add a class for the IC-706/FT-100 guys and see if it has any impact on
> over
> all participation. If that doesn't work, drop it and try something else. The
> point is that the contest rules have to evolve even if that means taking away
> some of the advantage that the big guns currently have.
I think this is a good point.
When I look at the current ARRL VHF contests one thing that sticks out
for me is that these contests are all the same. They have the same
basic scoring structure, they run the same lenght of time etc.
The only thing that makes that diffrent is that they occur during
difffrent times of the year and as such they do each have a slightly
diffrent flavor due to some diffrences in seasonal propagation.
When I think about the HF contests that I operate one of the things
that I like is that they each offer something diffrent - they are not
all the same. The ARRL November SS is very diffrent from the NA QSO Party
even though both of them are geared to working the USA and Canada.
So - expanding on this a bit - maybe it is time to make changes to
one or more of the ARRL VHF contests and/or add a few more VHF/UHF contests
that have diffrent rules and/or catagories than the current big three contests
provide.
Several things that come to mind.
- Make all contacts count one point regardless of band.
There would still be plenty of incentive to get on all the bands
in order to get more multipliers.
- Use some form of distance scoring.
- Make the contest shorter and/or provide for mandated offtime.
Examples: The NA QSO party is 12 hours long, single ops can only operate 10
hours.
Sweepstakes is 24 hours out of 36.
How about an all band VHF/UHF contest that is only 4 hours long.
- Have a contest that is limited to the low bands.
- Have a contest where you can work people more than once during
the contest period. We have done this on HF in contests
such as the internet sprint by having a rule that you have to have
three contacts between each contact with a station.
A variation on this for VHF/UHF would be some rule that lets
you work someone each hour or every two hours - forcing you to
try contacts during "bad" parts of the day for a given path.
- Some new catagories.
- Something to encourge FM only guys to get on the radio too.
I am sure there are many more ideas.
--
George Fremin III
geoiii@kkn.net
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