[CQ-Contest] off times

[George Fremin III - K5TR]

On Thu, Sep 21, 2000 at 11:49:28PM +0000, Rick Bullon wrote:
> 
> Why is there an off time for single ops in contests????
> 

There may be many reasons.

- Rest time.
- Way to avoid bad weather or bad radio conditions.
- Add additional strategy to the contest.

I am sure there might be more reasons.

Why certian offtime rules exist?  I think to know the root of
why they were put into the rules - you would have to go back
to the person(s) who wrote the rules.

> takes more skill when you have to take breaks. You have to learn the 
> propagation and then you know when to take a break" or " When the rate drops 
> then you take a break"

I think that it does add an element of skill and it also adds a 
an intersting dimension to the event for me.  It add another 
variable to deal with as the choice of offtimes can be very 
critical to your final outcome. 

>   There are even 12 hour contests that limit the single op to 10 
> hours(NAQP)! Come now I am capable of working a contest for 12 hours!

Yep - but it makes the contest more interesting.

There was a time in my contesting career that I thought offtimes were dumb
and should not exist but my view has changed.  I really like the fact
that there are so many diffrent contest formats with diffrent rules.

> I noticed that the ARRL 10 meter contest requires ALL station to only 
> operate 36 out of 48 hours. Another rule that needs to be changed. When is 
> the last time you heard 10 meters opened for 48 continuous hours? You can't 
> work 48 hours on 10 meters maybe 20 or 30 if conditions are excellent!!!!
> Can some one tell me the reason for this silly rule??????


Again I can not tell you the reason for this rule.  I can tell you 
that I usually operate something very close to 36 hours when I do the 
10 meter contest.  If you take 6 hours off each night you 
can operate for 36 hours - there have been some nights when 
I have not made a single QSO from 9pm or 10pm local time until
12am (midnight) local when I got off the band - there have 
been other times when I was wondering at 12am if I was going to 
be able to QRT since I was still working stations.  If you 
made the 10m contest into a 48 hour event I can tell you that
I would be on the band for more than 36 hours and so would some ohters.

Some of the multi-ops would be there for the entrie 48 hours.

This already happens in the CQ 160 contests since you can operate
for the entire period.


I find that in the 10m contest the offtimes do not add to
the strategy but it does add to my sleep time.  In ohter contests
the offtimes make the contest much more interesting for me.



-- 

George Fremin III                 
Johnson City, Texas             "Experiment trumps theory." 
K5TR (ex.WB5VZL)                            -- Dave Leeson W6NL
geoiii at kkn.net                             
830-868-2510                      
http://www.kkn.net/~k5tr                   


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