[CQ-Contest] CW versus SSB in 160 Contests

[Bill Tippett]

        I've about used up my annual quota of posts but here's one more
observation regarding CW versus SSB effectiveness on 160.  The September
CQ-Contest Magazine lists the top 118 high-claimed scores for both the 
2001 CW and SSB CQ 160 Contests...same rules, similar activity levels 
(December CQ Magazine actually lists slightly more unique calls for SSB 
than CW...4606 versus 4512 in the 2000 contest results) and similar 
propagation (contests separated by 30 days):

       #1 Score       #118 Score
CW      884,477         204,288
SSB     273,980          33,702

Since the CQ 160 scoring system highly weights inter-continental QSO's,
this demonstrates just how much more effective CW is as a mode for DX on 
160.  The #1 score for SSB would only make the #75 position in the CW contest.
Perhaps 2001 was a particularly bad year for SSB or good year for CW but 
you can see the same advantage in the alltime CQ 160 CW and SSB records at:

http://members.aol.com/k3bu/W160Records.htm

        Here are the average margins for alltime CQ 160 records in the 
following categories:

                CW over SSB (%)
World              +107
Africa             +107
Asia                +44
Europe             +123
North America       +68
USA                 +30
Oceania             +57
South America      +212
Multioperator       +90
Low Power           +63
QRP                 +98

Average margin      +91

        CW rules on 160!...but you knew that didn't you?  

                                                73,  Bill  W4ZV


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