Eqalized DX contest.

[Alan Brubaker]

It seems to me that this concept has been proposed and discussed in
the past. I recall that one of the ARRL directors brought up something
like this at one of the board meetings, and the ARRL CAC was tasked
with coming up with an equitable system for "leveling the playing
field". So, indeed, the concept was that a person with 100 watts and
a vertical would have a chance to compete with another person with a
KW and stacked arrays on the basis of operating skill alone while
allowing for differences in the hardware used. There was quite a
discussion on just this subject in NCJ back in 1974.

The infamous "Minute 49", which was a motion by "Doc" Gmelin,
requesting that the Contest Advisory Committee recommend ways of
changing contest rules so that transmitter power, height and gain of
antenna systems, and numbers of transmitters and receivers used, 
shall be a part of the factors determining final score, was raised
at the January, 1977 board meeting. A lively discussion followed,
and generally it was agreed that such a system was just not practical,
and the CAC's response to the ARRL BOD was essentially that.

What goes around, comes around - here we are repeating history, almost.
Recall that we used to have a power multiplier in the SS back in the
'60s and earlier. This was an attempt to equalize things to a degree.
It did not work because, as Bob said, there are unscrupulous people
(read cheaters) out there who will take advantage if they think that
they can get away with it. As we all know, the power multiplier was
dropped. But now we have separate competitive classes within the
contest structure that allow high power stations to compete against
high power stations, low power stations to compete against low power
stations and QRP stations to compete against QRP stations. A better
arrangement, in my opinion. The winners of each classification are
indeed recognized, but usually, the big guns get most of the glory
when the contest results are published.

And the beat goes on...

Alan, K6XO

alan at dsd.es.com