15m impressions

[Howard]

------------------------- Your note follows: -------------------------
>
>Alan asks if anyone else thinks that the DX contest should be shortened
>again.
>
>Personally, I like the concept of a 24 hour DX contest, starting at 1200z
>on Saturday.  For most parts of the world (except Islamic countries) this
>means that everyone can operate full time without encroaching into working
>days at either the start or finish of the contest.
>
>I believe that the pace of the contest would also increase, since activity
>will be focused into a smaller time period.  More people would put in a full
>time effort ... and it places a higher premium on operating strategy: one
>can't rely on Day 2 to overcome mistakes made on Day 1 (missing openings and
>multipliers).
>
>From a political standpoint, it is also a useful concession to the non-
>contest community: the bands are not "trashed" for the whole weekend, from
>their perspective.  It is easier to justify having more "popular" (i.e.,
>crowded) contest weekends, when each weekend's contests are 24 hours long.
>
>A 24-hour contest (vice 36 hours or some other figure) gives everyone one
>complete day's worth of propagation openings.  For DX contests, the contest
>duration needs to be in units of 24 hours for this reason.
>
>Some have said that people would be less motivated to go on contest
>DXpeditions, if the contest was only 24 hours long.  I believe there is
>a counter to that concern: use a 24 hour contest, but make the phone and
>CW weekends adjacent to each other.  Thus, one expedition can cover both
>contests more practically ... with a resultant further increase in multiplier
>level.
>
>In summary, I believe that 24-hour DX contests are worth testing further.
>The competition level should be keener, with the premiums on strategy and
>the higher numbers of serious full-time participants.
>
>-- eric  K3NA
>
>
>(And, as a footnote, the IARU 24-hour DX contest has done very well in
>the few years that it has been around ... especially given it's July dates.
>It's almost as popular as ARRL DX in terms of logs received, the last time
>I checked...)
>
>
I share Eric's sentiments.

Certainly, one down side is that 2 days gives you a better shot at
decent propagation. How many times have you had one nite on the low
bands where QRN was impossible ?

However, downsizing makes sense for all the reasons Eric states.
With only a 24 hour test, stacking the weekends makes sense-
boy would I like to see CW weekends moved closer to better
equinox propagation of Fone CQ/ARRL.

Looking at the popularity/FUN of the Sprint/NAQ, I think
part of it is that you can let out all the stops and by
the time the non-contesters are at full grumble level,
it r over.

73, Howie K4PQL