[CQ-Contest] zero pointers etc

[Ted Bryant]

Dave K8CC said:
"...As long as CQWW gives multiplier credit for your own country, there are going to be zero point
QSOs..."

- yes, the root cause of the zero-point issue. Doesn't this also suggest a solution?

"...I don't really think the impact of zero point QSOs on your points/QSO ratio is of any
significance unless the percentage gets *really* high..."

- agree, but "really" high is really relative. NQ4I's zero-point QSO's was around 9% while K5NA's
was a whopping 19%! Both felt the impact.

73, Ted W4NZ


-----Original Message-----
From: cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com]On Behalf Of David Pruett
Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2005 11:38 PM
To: Rick Dougherty; CQ Contest
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] zero pointers etc


Rick,

As long as CQWW gives multiplier credit for your own country, there are
going to be zero point QSOs.  Yes, I grimaced to myself as I "bothered"
K3LR and K1TTT for QSOs on the high bands, and felt it necessary to explain
with "tnx for mult" in the response.

Some of the QSOs from your "mult" stations may have been plugging in W/K
mults to the NQ4I total.

I don't really think the impact of zero point QSOs on your points/QSO ratio
is of any significance unless the percentage gets *really* high.  However,
I think most DX contesters naturally tend towards those areas offering
three point QSOs.  Also, if you're a NA Caribbean station points/Q shows
whether you fell into the trap of running "easy" two-point NA instead of
focusing on the (perhaps harder) rate from EU or JA.

The worst scum of all are the W/K guys who will give you a QSO in CQWW for
the mult, then omit you from their log to improve their points/Q!  Then you
get hit for a NIL, lose the mult, etc.  A pox on such people!

73,

Dave/K8CC



At 06:46 AM 11/29/2005, Rick Dougherty wrote:
>Hi all...I have been analyzing my log to see if there are areas that I can
>improve my point per qso ratio...its amazing when you sit down after the
>contest and do a little analysis...first off...my stations are coded and I
>can see if the run or mult station made a qso..we made a gross number of
>qso's of 5286 qso's...of that total, 191 were dupes...further analysis
>shows that less than 8% were made on the mult station...that means that 92
>% of the dupes called the run station...of our gross qso number we were
>called by 462 zero pointers...and its kinda amazing that some of these
>zero pointers were also dupes!
>
>Our average run rate for the entire station is 110 qso's per hour for the
>total 48 hours...a total of 462 zero pointers and 191 dupes is 653 qso's
>that were totally useless information exchanged...or a waste of 5.9 hours
>for the entire station....
>
>I gave a little thought to the process and come up with the following
>explanations:
>
>1. Our location has us beaming thru the major East Coast population areas
>to get to EU, while our competition has the back of their antennas to
>these same areas...
>2. Most people don't have a logging/duping program....duh!!!!
>3. The casual day to day operator really does not have any conception of
>the rules of the contest and thinks he is truly helping out...that meaning
>the stateside callers passing out qso's
>
>
>With all this aside, the 8% that were called by my MULT operators, I offer
>an apology...we will work on improving our error rate and reducing our
>wasted effort...but what can be done to inform the masses?? You want the
>casual day to day operator to call you in WPX, but since we don't get any
>points for same country in CQWW, it really distorts the playing
>field....is it time to step up to the plate and allow 1 point per qso for
>contacts within one's country??
>
>de Rick NQ4I
>_______________________________________________