[CQ-Contest] Why listening time counts

[Pete Smith]

At 09:28 AM 2/8/03 -0600, Kelly Taylor wrote:
>If you could sit at the radio for those three hours without declaring an
>'on' time until things were hot, what would be the point in having an
>element of strategy in the rules?


Well, it seems to me that it would diminish the "blind faith" aspect of 
declaring an off-time, but surely wouldn't do away with the "element of 
strategy."  After all, you still have to take your 6 hours off(in SS), and 
each off period must be at least 30 minutes, so once you decide things 
sound good enough and hop in, you have to recalculate your off-time plan.

I can see one real advantage in SS -- if you were hung at 78 or 79 
sections, you could spend listening time tracking down the missing section(s).

But all this is kinda academic, because as SS is now scored the only 
markers of on and off times available to the scorers are QSO times 30 or 
more minutes apart.

73, Pete N4ZR