[CQ-Contest] 24 vs 48 - NO NEW CAREGORIES!

[Ron Notarius WN3VAW]

It only matters in the sense that the two flavors of 24 hour contest
(contiguous vs. non-contiguous) involves different strategies in picking
your operating time(s).

Also, keep in mind that one of the original concerns behind this was the
fact that because most 48 hour contests run 0000 Z Saturday thru 2359 Z
Sunday, certain parts of the world have to either not operate on, or not
work on, their local Friday or Monday.  Either way, the 24 hour category
gives these operators greater potential by selecting a time period that does
not impact their available time so severely.  Again, though, it's one thing
if they have to pick a single 24 hour slice (such as UTC Saturday, UTC
Sunday, 0800 Z Saturday - 0759 Sunday, etc) vs. being able to pick and
choose their potentially best propagation times to add up to 24 hours.

At this point, I don't have a preference which flavor, so long as once there
is an agreement (which I'm not sure there is yet) that a 24 hour category is
desireable, that we pick one flavor and stick to it to keep things
consistent.

73, ron wn3vaw

'Never attribute to malice that which is adequately
  explained by stupidity.' --Hanlon's Razor

----- Original Message -----
From: "Kelly Taylor" <ve4xt at mb.sympatico.ca>
To: "Ron Notarius WN3VAW" <wn3vaw at fyi.net>; <cq-contest at contesting.com>;
"Pete Smith" <n4zr at contesting.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 08, 2003 10:18 AM
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] 24 vs 48 - NO NEW CAREGORIES!


Why would it matter? As long as everyone is under the same set of rules, I
don't see why it makes a difference to have a contiguous 24-hour block or a
non-contiguous 24-hour block. It's not like these folk would be competing
with the 48-hour guys, so why would they care if the 24-hour ops could
"cherry pick" their operating time?

If you had an "any 24 hours" contest, then those who picked well would win
and those who didn't wouldn't. Which is kind of the whole idea of
introducing an element of strategy, no?

You would have to retain the "listening time counts as operating time" rule,
however, because part of the strategy could not be to sit their the entire
48 hours and only start transmitting when things are hot.

Or, if you made it that you could choose which 24-hour block you wanted to
operate (one contiguous block, that is), the strategy would be there. Or you
could choose to identify the 24-hour period (say 1000Z to 0959Z, or
whatever).

It seems to me that for this category, WHAT you choose is not nearly as
important as THAT you choose one.

73, kelly, ve4xt

----- Original Message -----
From: "Pete Smith" <n4zr at contesting.com>
To: "Ron Notarius WN3VAW" <wn3vaw at fyi.net>; <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Friday, February 07, 2003 8:06 PM
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] 24 vs 48 - NO NEW CAREGORIES!


> At 10:40 AM 2/7/03 -0500, Ron Notarius WN3VAW wrote:
> >Jim has a point.
> >
> >For a 24 hour category to work w/in a 48 hour contest, it would have to
be a
> >contiguous 24 hour period.  Exactly which one may be up to the contest
> >sponsors (ie UTC Saturday only, UTC Sunday Only, or any given 24 hour
> >period) but it needs to be one 24 hour block.  Otherwise the "24 hour"
gang
> >can cherry pick the bands they want to maximize Q's.
>
>
> That's exactly why this category is potentially interesting.  The
strategic
> decisions to be made are part of the fun.
>
>
> >Or to put it another way, there should be a way of distinguishing, IMHO,
> >YMMV, between someone who runs in the 24 Hour category and someone who
> >operates 24 Hours in the 48 Hour category.  After all, isn't one of the
> >reasons for proposing this category is to accommodate those who only have
> >one 24 hour window available to operate on the contest weekend?
>
>
> No.  It is to encourage people who would only operate 8 or 10 or 12 hours
> to make a 24-hour effort, composed of whatever time they can spare or
their
> bodies will let them do.
>
>
>
> 73, Pete N4ZR
> The World HF Contest Station Database was updated 1 Feb 03.
> Are you current? www.pvrc.org/wcsd/wcsdsearch.htm
>
>
>
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