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

[Kenneth E. Harker]

On Mon, Oct 15, 2001 at 08:28:35AM -0400, Pete Smith wrote:
> 
> 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

And the ARRL 160 Meter Contest.

> 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?

If the country distribution used by WRTC 2002 to assign competitors is
accurate, then US contesters represent just 1/4 of the total.

-- 
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Kenneth E. Harker      "Vox Clamantis in Deserto"      kharker at cs.utexas.edu
University of Texas at Austin                   Amateur Radio Callsign: WM5R
Department of the Computer Sciences         President, UT Amateur Radio Club
Taylor Hall TAY 2.124                         Maintainer of Linux on Laptops
Austin, TX 78712-1188 USA            http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/
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