People enter radio contest for many different reasons. Sometimes 100's of
thousands of dollars and super operators in the middle of the US will not
win over a modest station in the NE. Obviously, the population difference
and the nature of VHF propagation causes the offset. I suppose it is fun to
see how much you can close the gap in the scores.
Before 1983, the ARRL division was the contest multipliers. We had EPA, WPA,
NNJ, SNJ, EMA, WMA, VT, NH, DE, NLI, NY and so on in the NE. Having all
these multipliers in close proximity coupled with an intense population made
contest scores very large compared to other parts of the US. If you think it
is hard to win west of the Mississippi now, you should have tried it before
1983.
Going to grid multipliers in 1983 helped to level the contest scores.
Serious opposition was encountered when the idea was first presented but
time has proven that using grids has been successful. Stations in the mid
west have access to grids in all directions, opposed to the NE stations and
coastal station bordering the Atlantic ocean. Think about the Florida guys
and how many grids they have access to.
The growth of rovers in the contest has allowed mid west stations many new
multipliers from grids that are not active. Rovers in the NE has done the
same thing but are not as likely to find grids that are not active to give
out new mults to fixed stations. In their own way the rover guys has helped
to level the playing field for many station out west to make up for the less
populated areas.
I think each one of us has to ask ourselves what we want to achieve in
contesting. Do we want to build a competitive multi-op station, work new
grids that might be active in the contest, be a rover to compete against
other rovers or to just supply grids to fixed stations. Once you have set
a realistic goal, start working on a way to make it happen. That is the way
of radio contesting.
Ron W4WA
On Sun, Feb 15, 2009 at 8:19 PM, Shupienis, Joseph <jshupienis@ccac.edu>wrote:
>
> "All of us west of the Mississippi enter knowing we have very very little
> chance of winning. I certainly don't expect to have a chance of winning. I
> compete against my previous scores and others in my area." -- K6EU/r
>
> And that IS a contest you have a chance of winning!
>
> 73, de Joe, W3BC
>
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