[CQ-Contest] ARRL sections

[Kelly Taylor]

There is no east coast advantage in SS. Look at rate charts. The big east
coasters will put up huge numbers on Saturday yet often finish far behind
the pack.

A theory I've heard is that they work the crap out of 80/75 but their rates
suffer on Sunday when all that's left are multihop paths that are less
productive. They basically run the eastern seaboard dry on Saturday and pick
up the scraps on Sunday. No flames, please, it's just a theory I've heard.

Aside from the time-tested advantages of WP3R at Arecibo, in my view there
is only one place in North America that has significant advantages over
others: Saskatchewan.

Manitoba is a close second. Why? We have optimum hops into the heart of
American amateurdom. We can work into the Indiana-NY belt like nobody's
business. And from Virginia to the Carolinas and the Gulf states, we
generally (or so we're told) are LOUD. Then we can run W6s like stink. And
when we need to, we can go into the Tech band on 10 and run Gulf Coast
Techs. From here, none of the sections are particularly "hard" to work, as
long as someone is there.

And of course the VE4 or VE5 prefix is good for several dBs. It's not quite
the gain that VY1JA gets from his prefix, but we're not as severely affected
by aurora like Jay is either.

Hops into Saskatchewan fall a little more optimally than in Manitoba, which
is why I rate VE5 higher.

But Shhh! Don't tell anybody, please.
73, kelly
ve4xt


----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Gilmer, N2MG" <n2mg at eham.net>
To: <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Friday, November 01, 2002 10:52 AM
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] ARRL sections


> > i agree ... i think it boils down to has the most pull
> > at the league plus most of the new sections both canada
> > anf the us continue to improve the easter stations advantage
> > in my opinion
>
>
> Funny, I've never seen "east coast advantage" and "sections" (IOW,
> Sweepstakes) used in the same sentence.  I'll have to look that one
> up...
>
> Mike N2MG
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