[CQ-Contest] Barking up the wrong ARRL DX tree

[George Fremin III]

On Sun, Apr 03, 2005 at 10:50:51PM -0000, Stuart Santelmann KC1F wrote:
> 
> 
> > Yeah, right !  When was the last time you (or anyone else who normally
> lives
> > near the east coast) operated from west of 90 degrees W longitude and came
> even
> > close to winning the SOAB high power category in any major contest ?  Try
> it
> > sometime for a learning experience.
> >
> > I guess those of us who consistently put in major efforts and operate from
> W5,
> > 6, 7, or 0  are simply 3rd class lids, or we would have occassionally won.
> >
> > Steve, N2IC/5
> > _______________________________________________
> 
> 
> WM5G  ARRL SSB 1991
> 
> Stu        KC1F

Yes - that was a very fine effort by N5TJ but the world
has changed since the early 1990's.

You should look at the top ten over the last 5 or 10 years.

The huge increases in European amateur populations 
has over time has made winning DX contests from places
distant from Europe harder with each passing year. 

There are all sorts of efforts in the past from out west that 
show similar results.

Back in the 70's all sorts of West coast stations were winning
this contest.  Even as last as 1983 by N6KT at AI6V. 
In fact in 1983 WA6VEF(VA7RR) at AI6V won the CQ WW SSB SOAB
category.  But I am not sure they could make the top ten now.

I agree with N9RV on this subject - and I like the fact that 
there are lots of different kinds of contests to choose from and 
I still like getting on in the DX contests even though I know 
the deck is severely stacked against me here in Texas.

I wish all of the W1, W2, W3, W4 stations that do the DX contests
would get on in SS and operate as hard as N2IC, K5GN, K7RL and others
do in the DX contests.

-- 
George Fremin III - K5TR
geoiii at kkn.net
http://www.kkn.net/~k5tr