[CQ-Contest] NAQP Regional Advantage

[K7ZO (Scott Tuthill)]

Sorry I missed out on the early parts of this thread. This is a regular one
that pops up when someone feels they have been disadvantaged for some
reason. This time KU8E seems to have stirred up the hornets nest. As a
member of the second place SSB M/2 NK7U team let me offer some thoughts:

* I personally contest because it is fun way to spend the weekend. I am as
competitive as the next guy. I play to win. And I put endless hours into an
amazing station at NK7U (www.nk7u.com) But, except when there are quirks of
propagation or other world events we are never going to "win" in any contest
we enter. We typically compare ourselves to "Stations west of the
Mississippi maybe or maybe not including Texas". And, we usually do well
there. We also own most multi op records for W7 in the major contests. So I
am totally in line with K5RC's comment about: "Get over it. Compete with
yourself and your local gang." If I only contested if we had a chance to win
on a WW or US basis I wouldn't do it. This is a hobby, not a career.

* In reality there are maybe two major contests that the west coast has a
chance to place well in on a complete US basis: NAQP for the reasons
currently being circulated and WPX where the ability to run JA's on the low
bands for high points takes away some of the east coast advantage. N6RO has
placed extremely well in M/M WPX for years. It used to be possible for the
west coast to do well in Sweepstakes but the advantage seems to have shifted
to Texas. In a contest like CQWW or ARRL we feel good if we can reach 50% of
K4JA's score who is our "standard candle" M/S or M/2 operation. As W7GG
said: "gess u have not contested from here!!"

* To prove once again how short a memory we all have, the last two January
NAQP SSB M/2 were total runaways by K9NS who is about as "midwest" as they
come. They were in the 800K+ range with their nearest competitors in the
600K range. They probably would have won again this year except for the ice
storms in the midwest that froze everyone's antennas. And even with that
they had as many mults on 160M as we did QSO's. Again, they had as many
mults on 160M as we did QSO's. And since in NAQP a multiplier difference is
a much bigger deal than say in Sweepstakes, in most years this is impossible
for the west coast to overcome. This year was a unique combination of
propagation and mother nature.

* I loved N6DE's account of the team that beat us -- W6YX. Those guys have
the contesting spirit. I am proud that they squeezed out a bunch more mults
than us and won.

I personally had a *^%$@ of a lot of fun in NAQP this year. When the clock
ticked 06:00 NK7U and I looked at each other with big smiles on our face. We
had the most fun we had had in a 12 hour period in a long time. It took us
an hour and couple of beers to settle down.

K5RC thank you and the rest of the fathers of NAQP for coming up with the
format and K6ZZ, WA7BNM, and K7WM for keeping it going.

Scott/K7ZO