[CQ-Contest] NAQP and the (midwest)(south)east coast

[Scott R.]

KU8E wrote:

>NAQP favors the West Coast big time !!!!  No way I am going make
400->500 QSO's and 45 mults on both 160 and 80 to counter what you guys
do >on 15 and 10 meters... We are also are starting to see 40 go long
>early now which gives the West Coast even more of an advantage.

Mmmmm - I do see that in this year's January NAQP there is a high
proportion of west coast stations in the top 10 on both modes, but I
have never felt that they have an advantage over the southeast in this
contest.  I'd judge it to be about equal.  Yes, if 10 stays open for a
long time and the low bands are noisy (as happened on SSB this month),
the west coast is going to win it.  If 10 meters tanks and we have a
quiet night on the low bands, forget it, there is nobody out in W6/W7
that is going to win NAQP over the W4's.  And then N9RV gets in there
with a bunch of top 5's and confuses the whole issue further.  

Once the sunspot cycle drops, it's not going to get any easier on the
west coast for a good showing in the NAQP's.   

"East coast" isn't a real good catch-all descriptor out here anyway -
my contest QTH in Tennessee is longitudinally directly south of
Indianapolis.  

Scott W4PA


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