[3830] CaQP VE9AA SOFixed QRP

[Mike Heideman]

Hi Mike,


I have never been a member of the CQP committee so I'm sending this just as an observer. I've seen your complaints about the MR vs. NB/NS/PEI/NF/LB issue in the past and wanted to give an outsider's perspective.


You are very welcome to send NB in your exchange in CQP. I recall receiving an exchange of NL from a Newfoundland/Labrador station this year. No problem. The log-checking programs accept all of the component province abbreviations.


In the early history of the CQP someone (W6OAT? http://www.cqp.org/cqp_multipliers.html) cleverly decided that it would be novel to have the same number of multipliers for in-state and out-of-state entries. Since there are 58 counties in California, which are the multipliers for out-of-state entries, it was determined that the multipliers for in-state entries would be the 50 US states plus the then-existing 8 Canadian call districts, VE1 through VE8. VO1 and VO2 got lumped in with VE1 since they were adjacent.


Most of the Canadian call districts at the time were single provinces or territories except for VE1 and VE8. For the first CQP that I did seriously, in 1976, I believe that everyone in the Canadian provinces sent their actual province name/abbreviation. Contestants from CA crossed off the multipliers on their multiplier checklist, the 50 US states and VE1 through VE8.


Since 1977 new prefixes have been assigned to provinces and territories - VY1, VY2, VE9, VY0. The CQP rules specifically refer to Canadian areas as multipliers, meaning the original Canadian numbered call areas from the time CQP equalized the multipliers. The first logging programs, TR-Log for example, actually logged all Canadian QSOs by replacing the user-entered province with one of VE1 through VE8.


At some point in the recent past (since 2000) it was decided to standardize abbreviations for all of the multipliers, 4 letters for all of the CA counties and 2 letters for the states and Canadian call areas. The former VE1 call area became Maritime, abbreviated MR, to avoid confusion with Massachusetts (MA).


It is extremely unlikely that the current set of CQP multipliers will change. Preserving the equal number of in-state and out-of-state multipliers is the primary issue. Perhaps if new California counties were created by subdividing existing counties then new out-of-state multipliers would be created. The District of Columbia also has a similar identity issue in CQP as it is part of the Maryland-District of Columbia multiplier, abbreviated MD.


I hope that explains the CQP side of the Maritime issue. Please join in CQP next year and feel free to send NB in your exchange. For ARRL contests such as SS I suspect that the only way that we'll see separate mults for NS, NB, PE, NWT, YT and NU is if the RAC decides they are separate sections as they did with the ONE/ONN/ONS/GTA situation. I suggest petitioning RAC to do this if you feel that strongly about the issue. ARRL is just following RAC's lead in this.


73,

-Mike, N7MH

VE9AA wrote:
Repeat after me.  MAR (or MR as you call it), is *NOT* a Province.
The way the CQP folks have it, it's not even a RAC section (as bad as *that*
is)

Every year I see laments & complaints that MR was missed (apparently there
was someone on from PEI, but not sure who that was) and every year I post
messages here on 3830 or direct to your committee but they always fall on deaf
ears, despite there being some very intelligent folks in W6.

True, some of us up here don't care a rats patootey what we send as an
exchange.

I maintain there are an equal # of us contesters that for obvious reasons would
rather send our Provinical designation "NB, NS, PEI, NF/LB" that we do
in 95% of all other contests where States/Provinces are mults.

If your "MR" particip[ation is low or lacking in the USA's biggest
QSO party, you maybe have looked past the fact that you have arbitrarily lumped
"all us guys" into one giant 'convenient' area.

The ARRL for Sweepstakes is nearly as bad.

That's it.

Mike VE9AA "NB"