[CQ-Contest] Comments on other NAQP rule suggestions

[Dean Wood]

1. I disagree that restricting NAQP teams to a 500 mile circle would 
create more participation.  In fact, I believe this restriction would 
decrease participation, not increase it.  Let's take a recent World Wide 
Young Contesters (WWYC) entry as an example:
http://lists.contesting.com/archives//html/CQ-Contest/2003-08/msg00250.html

The existing NAQP team rules allowed five young contesters 
geographically distant (TX, Argentina, PA, SC, IN) to have a lot of fun 
as a team effort.  I think it's fair to say that none of them would have 
been as active as they were if they couldn't have formed this team.  Why 
would we want to reduce this participation and eliminate this type of 
team by introducing distance restrictions in NAQP?  I hope NAQP teams 
continue to be free of distance boundaries.  NAQP and Sprint teams are a 
fun alternative to the traditional ARRL and CQ club competition 
restrictions.

I think it's great that ZF2NT was a part of his home contest club's team 
entry.  I'm sure everyone appreciated his multiplier and QSOs in NAQP 
CW.  If KE3Q operated at WP3R for NAQP, I would expect him to be on his 
contest club's team (PVRC) or any other team he wanted to join.


2. Regarding >100W for non-NA stations in NAQP, it's my sense that this 
wouldn't change non-NA participation much.  Pointing your beam at these 
stations would solve the problem if you want to work more non-NA 
stations in NAQP.  The difference in F/B or F/S would be quite a bit 
more than the non-NA station going from 100W to 400W.  If you want to 
work other continents, point at them.  You could even power split 
between two antennas if you have that luxury.  The non-NA stations will 
surely appreciate the increase in your signal strength.  If you want to 
work NA and mults, then point to NA.  We don't need a rules change for 
this concept.  Few NA DX mults are active in NAQP.  We should address 
how to increase participation in NA DXCC entities before focusing on 
non-NA entities.


73...
-Dean - N6DE