[CQ-Contest] Re: Short contest calls.

[Michael Keane, K1MK]

"Vladimir V. Sidorov" wrote:

> 1. OK, K6 can mean any part of the USA. Let's imagine, I work K6XXX who
> is
> located in Hawaii, he gives me 599 31 and DOES NOT sent in his log.
> Without
> his log in hands the log checking system does not know his location and
> can
> only ASSUME that either his location was KH6 (but I don't think, a log
> checking program will go for assumptions about actual locations of
> particular stations), or I just messed up zones 31 and 3, because most
of
> "normal" K6's are in the zone 3. In any case, most probably this
contact
> will not count at all and I will miss a double mult and can even be
> penalized. 

He didn't sign KH6/ but somehow you knew that he is located in Hawaii
and not somewhere else in zone 31 like KH1, KH3, KH5, etc. If you had to
stop him and ask QTH? then you did a good job at slowing down his rate
and helped to deliver a practical lesson why there are times when not
indicating one's country can be counterproductive.

But don't try to second guess what the log checking will (or won't do).

Unless the contact ends up being a unique, it is possible for the log
checking to determine what K6XXX was sending as an exchange even without
his log by looking at his other contacts. And if you managed to figure
out he was in Hawaii so can the CQ Contest Comittee.

In CQWW everyone's score is recalculated using the same
multiplier-reference data and one common country database. Thus, if
K6XXX was really out there making some noise,  everyone who worked him
is going to get credit for the proper mults(s) whether or not they or
their logging software actually knew into which bin to place him. 

And since the rescoring is done first, there's no penalty assesed by the
log checkers for not knowing the correct country or for the other
station sending the wrong zone. 

With Cabrillo format you don't actually indicate or otherwise claim
credit for which contacts are what multiplier, the contest sponsor
figures all that out.

Even if the QSO was a unique, credit for the contact is only lost and a
penalty assesed if additional analysis turns it into a bad (for CQWW). 

> 2. The same K6XXX  situated in Hawaii works in the WPX contest. How
many
> poins per QSO he gives to Europe, to North America, etc? Any idea? With
> his
> call he looks like he is in Noth America. Very recently he was looking
> like
> a zero-pointer for the USA stations and he might be just ignored by
some
> of
> them. Signing KH6/... he would be very much welcomed everywhere.

Granted that by choosing not to sign portable one could well be shooting
oneself in the foot.  

However, the WPX rules require one to sign portable if operating from a
DXCC country different from one's call, so for this particular example,
the point is moot. 

73,
Mike K1MK

Michael Keane K1MK
k1mk at arrl.net
________________________________________________
PeoplePC:  It's for people. And it's just smart. 
http://www.peoplepc.com