re; [CQ-Contest] Response to K5ZD's comments.

[ku8e at bellsouth.net]

 NH7A wrote :

  - Is the ARRL contest too long?  48 hours is better than 2 weekends, but
would 24 hours be even better?  As it is now, there are only a few
competitors at the top of each category.  Everyone else is in
participant class.  Would shortening the contest enable more guys to
compete seriously (i.e. be on for the whole contest)?  Or is this
"contest" run as a DX/WAS chasing promotional activity?

Response-
Not withstanding the "usual suspects" found in contests, most operators
are causal that just happen to get on. Shortening the contest to just 24
hours would exclude a huge percentage. I worked many stations on Sunday
that were new ones for me.
24 hours would also put us at the mercy of the Propagation Gods whose
wrath we can escape by having two days of operating. 
In ARRL Phone, the first 12 hours of the contest the propagation
rendered very slow rate. On Sunday, all that totally changed.
Lastly, few will bother to go anywhere and expend the effort and money
for just a 24 hour contest. IARU is a prime example of that.

Albert, T05A, F5VHJ
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 Here is an idea... Make the ARRL DX Contest a one weekend contest. Make the first 24 hours CW and the 2nd 24 hours SSB. This would certainly make the non-contesters happy because it would free up a weekend that the bands would not be crowded. Just think of all the combinations you could have for operating classes - S/O mixed mode , S/O CW only, etc..... 48 hours is just too long and I would guess a very small percentage of entries come close to doing 48 hours.

                                 Jeff KU8E