[CQ-Contest] Why I Won't Be in CQWW CW This Year

[Pete Smith]

I love CQWW CW beyond all contests, bar none.  but I won't be participating
this year, at least not seriously.  The reason?  As happens most years, the
contest falls on the weekend immediately after US Thanksgiving.  This is
the only major holiday this year that my son and his family will be able to
visit us, and I'm not willing to choose CQWW over the chance to spend time
with them.  In past years, I could argue to myself that they would be back
at Christmas, but the grandkids are growing up, and this year they're
planning Christmas at their home, not ours.

This is all the more aggravating because it is so unnecessary.  On the
following weekend, the first weekend in December, the only scheduled
contests (according to WA7BNM's contest calendar) are the TARA RTTY Sprint,
the Tennessee QSO Party and the QRP ARCI Holiday Spirits Sprint.  Which of
these wouldn't switch with CQWWCW in a heartbeat?  So why does CQWW insist
on maintaining the CW contest on Thanksgiving weekend, when another option
is so readily available?  Tradition?  Fear of perturbing records set a week
earlier?  Or just inertia?

It's too late this year, but why not join me in asking the CQWW Committee
to recognize the importance of family ties to the US participants and move
CQWWCW to the first weekend in December, 2002?



73, Pete N4ZR


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