[CQ-Contest] WPX debate

[Marijan Miletic]

Bob, KQ2M wrote:

>Someone on this reflector recently said (I am paraphrasing) there was an
>absurd ratio of mult's to qso's and that one merely needed push the F1
>button to get all the mults.  This reflects a lack of knowledge of how
>the winners of these contests actually operate.

WPX definitely has the highest ratio of mults to QSO and there is not much
point in S & P.  Recent sweep of almost dead 15m band on Sunday evening
in ARRL SSB from II3T brought me few strong USA stations including N2RM!
I guess they pushed F1 all the time as we did with a decent 300W :-)

>First of all, to my knowledge, NO ONE has won a CQWW, ARRL DX or WPX
>contest since 1987 WITHOUT using two radios EFFECTIVELY!

I guess PC, master data bases, packet radio and Internet had significantly
higher impact on contesting scene than 2 radios!  However, radiated RF can
be only increased that way and additional mults come handy.  Nice example
is in W2GD versus CT1BOH Aruba story...

>Those who only push F1, do NOT win.

Incidentally, CQ was assigned to F10 in my contest program ever since 1984!

>Besides it is awfully egocentric to think that the WPX contests should be
>tailored for the US.

It is not, if one only holds USA license but lives abroad :-)  We all respect
the number of USA contest participants and their discipline second only to JA.
Being bigger than EU, I feel intra-USA QSO should bring them points...

>As it stands, WPX participation in the US is miniscule compared to EU,
>JA and other areas of the world.  Surely they should have more input?

WPX gives EU better chance of achieving high scores than any other major
WW contest!

>If I had a 30 hour time limit for CQWW would I have heard and worked JH5ZJS
>and a VS97 on 10 meter LP at 14z?  Would they even have been on 10 meters?
>I don't think so!  We would have missed a fascinating and exciting band opening!

This is the main problem with WPX!  You do NOT need LP or any other strange
propagations as you may simply add DL2 & DL3 for the same mults count.  Just
stay on 40m and 20m and run, run, run...

>1) We change the scoring system so that US works US for 1 pt like EU
>Same continent qso's count 2 points and outside the continent count 3.
>This will bring up the level of US scores to be more competitive with
>the rest of the world and will help the midwest and west coast
>"catch-up" with the NE.

I do support this proposal but many non-USA winners will be afected!

>2) We establish Low Power categories and awards

WPX is already very creative at generating new categories!

>3) We move WPXCW to the last weekend in April for better propagation
>with less low-band noise (and get it away from Memorial Day Weekend!)

Great but move it also from my birthday on March 27th :-)

>4) We adopt a point system similar to WAE so that 40 is 2x points, 80
>   is 3x points and 160 is 4x points.

This is the only way to really activate lower bands!
 
>5) We allow Single op's to operate with NO time limit just like M/S
>   and M/M.

I am for it at the very young contesters age of 53!

>6) I like the grid square point idea also but think that #1 & 4 are much
>easier to implement and overall more effective in encouraging 6 band
>participation, and 6 band participation is what we are currently
>lacking.

Somehow it does not catch up on HF but serial numbers are fine feedback.

>Many years ago WAE switched from a 36 of 48 hour format to a 24 of 30.
>What a disaster!

Even bigger disaster was the period when USA states counted as mults!

>trying to work EU in August on 80 is pure HELL!

It certainly is but that distinguishes men from the boys!  It's not WPX...

>Finally, to the station (who shall remain nameless) who said there is
>minimal strategy as far as band changing and point scoring goes, PLEASE
>come to the Northeast and operate the BIGGEST station possible so you
>won't have any excuses when I beat the pants off of you!

Lot of us did come to WRTC-96 and lost our pants :-)  But we concluded it
was home ground advantage!  Dayton pile-up tapes are a different story...

>11 years ago in ARRL CW I became the first operator to use two radios in
>EVERY DX contest.

I got a feeling that it somehow relates to the length of Bob's contribution!

>I remember the furor that I created.

I was warned that my CW time multiplexed mode of operation at two freqs
is OK unless I win something...

>So what is the next area of score advancement?  Why it's not using two radios,
>but using two radios EFFECTIVELY!

Humans are not very effective even during 30 hours period on such a simple
tasks like single tone sequencial decoding or speech understanding.
Computers can do that better but as Brian, K6STI said:
I wouldn't like robot doing sex for me :-)

73 de Mario, S56A, N1YU.

P.S.  I was prompted to this comment by the exceptionally short note from my
favored contest and hamradio writer and distinguished pile-up handler K3ZO.


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