[CQ-Contest] WAE Rest Periods

Wed Aug 8 00:23:18 EDT 2001

Hi Gang,

In reading DARC's rules for WAE, I see that the required off time (rest 
periods) of 12 hours may not be taken in more than three time periods.  

Obvious times to take off, from here on the East Coast are after the European 
sunrise from about 0500Z to 0900Z.  Over the 48 hour contest period, that 
will consume 8 hours of off-time on each of the two mornings.  This leaves 
very long operating periods from 0900Z to 0500Z the next morning on each of 
two days where only ONE rest period of another 4 hours is allowed.

I'd like opinions on rest period strategies for handling the required 
off-time of 12 hours in no more than three periods.

73, Geo...

George I. Wagner, K5KG
941-312-9450
941-312-9460 fax

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>From Leigh S. Jones" <kr6x at kr6x.com  Wed Aug  8 06:45:47 2001
From: Leigh S. Jones" <kr6x at kr6x.com (Leigh S. Jones)
Date: Tue, 7 Aug 2001 22:45:47 -0700
Subject: [CQ-Contest] Unofficial final count
Message-ID: <042501c11fcd$603b72b0$ede3c23f at kr6x.org>

OK, time to put the voting for the top run operators or top contest
operators of all time to bed for the evening with my unofficial tally.
But by all means keep the responses to my inflammatory comments coming
in at a high pace.  We finally got away from the SO2R issue for a
while!

W6RW votes for W9WNV.
K5ZD votes for KH6RS (K1GQ, opr.), but adds that contesting in New
England wasn't the lead pipe cinch victory he thought it would be.
Nonetheless, I would add that no one in Texas has outscored his
serious DX contest efforts from New England.
N0SS votes for K7JA @ W7RM, KH6IJ, and W0UA.
K0HB votes for K6KII @ KG6AAY.
OH1NOA mentions K7JA and an unknown operator @ VP2KC, for which AE9B
may have written that he thinks that OH1NOA's selection represents
warped reality, or perhaps he was complaining that my reality is
warped, or is it his own?  In any event, I like his writing style for
the pure pleasure of solving a mystery.
K1EA votes N5TJ.
W7WHY votes HC8N, but doesn't specify which operator (presumably Trey
Garlough).
KG5U votes K5GN, K5GA, K5LZO, KN5H, NM5M, K5WA, K2TNO, W5ASP, NA5R,
NR5M, and "even K5ZD" plus 2 silent keys N5JJ and the previous K5WA.
KR6X (me) votes KH6IJ, K7JA, N6TR, N6AA, W0UA, and N6IG (plus
operators at CN8WW on phone in the fall of 1999) listing individual
strengths.
KQ2M, in a response to KR6X, expresses the belief that KR6X's opinion
antagonizes a lot of great operators.  Thanks for the response, Bob,
but why not put it on the reflector?  Heaven knows I tried.  Take it
from me, KQ2M emphatically votes broadly for unspecified operators in
the Northeast, and a lot of them.
W9SZ votes for 5B4ADA.  I've got to look up his score.
VE6YP recognizes OK1RR when identifying a top European operator
although he is vague as to whether OK1RR is his top selection overall.
Two responses simply criticized all operators in the Northeast, and
two responded, in effect, "great post".  VE6YP defended me against
criticism from OH1NOA to the effect that the thread has only listed
Americans (I've got to add that I was the only one to recognize
European operators until W9SZ and VE6YP added their selections later).

Top vote getters were K7JA with 3, KH6IJ with 2, and W0UA with 2, plus
I think KQ2M voted twice for everyone in the Eastern half of the US...

Now on to the serious business.

Although I personally believe that the popularity of domestic contests
in the past has made for a great "contesting boot camp" for operators
in the Western US that hasn't been tapped by the Northeast to the
degree it has in the West, I would have to say that the reason that
operators in the Northeast and in Europe haven't made these lists is
not because there is a scarcity of good operators in those regions.

Instead, it appears to me that top flight contesters are primarily
geared to the DX contests rather than the domestic contests, and
achieve a high degree of scoring success without the attention that is
granted to other operators in the same contests.  One possible
(serious) explanation is simply that in the DX contests the high rates
produced by stations in the Carribbean/SA areas and (increasingly) in
North Africa draw attention away from the achievements of the
Northeastern contesters.  And Europe perhaps suffers a similar lack of
attention.  Or is it possible that there is simply something in the
path, like excessive interference from adjacent frequencies that makes
it difficult for Northeastern contesters and Europeans to stand out in
the memories of the listeners as displaying high skill levels?  I
noticed this several months ago in a similar thread, and would have
made an effort to debunk the attitudes at that time if I wasn't busy
with the web site.  Something's going wrong when guys like K1AR and
KQ2M aren't instantly recognized for their contesting prowess in these
straw polls, and I couldn't even get K1EA to vote for a Northeastern
operator with all the needling I did in my post.

Now, seriously, I do truly stand behind my own selections.  But I also
believe there should be a broader set of responses than my own.
What's going wrong with the attitude of contesters toward the
Northeast?  Is it the equivalent of people who can't recognize that a
victory from Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands in the SS should count
as a victory?  We all recognize the great job done by Trey, Tree,
Randy, and Jeff in repeated SS victories in the past decade, why not
WP3R now?

Don't get me wrong, I think that a victory by W4AN in a DX contest
does have a little bit of extra sweetness that a New England victory
lacks.  And I'm truly more impressed with N6IG's work from W6AX and
N6RT from W6EEN because these guys are actually breaking into the top
ten in various DX contests from California for the first such
successes in decades.  But the contests are still usually won by K1AR
and KQ2M.  Don't they deserve recognition for that?

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