SOA Limited (24hr)

[ames at nebula.decnet.lockheed.com]

while the proposed operational rules for SOA Limited (24hr) may sound
reasonable, I do not believe it misses the goal "intended to encourage
current casual participants".  But I only state this from personal experience
of less than 6 months contesting experience with a Tech-Plus licence.  For
phone operation, I should qualify that statement.  There is a goal to 
"discourage picking the best 24 hours" out of 48 hours.  WPX Phone is my
ONLY experience at 24 hours in a contest, and those hours were picked 
based on two criteria, propagation from W6-land and QRM.  Propagation here
on 10 meters favors operation from 1600 UTC to 0300 UTC, so for two days
of operation one could assume good rates with bearable QRM.  Unfortuately,
solar flux is not all that constant and the odds favor operation on one
of the two days.  If I want to score points, I have to operate from 0000 UTC
to 0300 UTC and 1400 UTC to 1600 UTC every day!  The proposed rules take
away that flexibility, and force me into a situation where where I have to
curse that fact that I am limited both in output power and in band operation.

So, from my position these proposed rules would not encourage me to operate
in a 24 hour class but based on my comments, QRM and propagation do force
me to limit my Phone contesting to 24 hours.  Conditions in W1-land would
be different, so their criteria would be different.  Such rules as proposed
would only make me feel more discouraged about my low scores and encourage me
to dump my rig.  If the rules are to encourage anyone, you ought to identify
exactly who these people are.  Where is my 10X number?  No, for me it is
DX contesting or nothing!

alan, N2ALE/6