[CQ-Contest] World Records and Verticals

[John WA2GO]

I'm confused - is the debate whether verticals or yagis makes you a better 
operator in the contest, or is the debate whether verticals or yagis give 
you stronger transmitted and received signal strength, which then 
(assumably) leads to a higher score?   Because if the debate is about which 
type of antenna actually gives better on-the-air performance, I would think 
that a controlled set of V vs. Y measurements could more easily be taken 
without the added distraction of a contest.

A silly response for a silly debate...   the station with the winning 
combination of operators and equipment is going to win, whatever that turns 
out to be on that particular weekend.  Period.  Run the same contest with 
the same competitors at the same stations but on a different weekend, and 
you might get a different result, because the propagation gods and goddesses 
might be in a different mood. And that is not an experimental variable you 
can measure too easily, let alone control for.   For example, "verticals 
will win when EU is coming in at 4-6 degrees on 20 meters, but yagis will 
win when EU is coming in at 13-17 degrees...."   etc.

Again, the bottom line: the station with the winning combination of 
operators and equipment is going to win. It's a game, and you can stack the 
odds (no pun intended), but you still can't predict the outcome with 
certainty!

73,

WA2GO


>From: K3BU at aol.com
>To: cq-contest at contesting.com
>Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] World Records and Verticals
>Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2005 17:02:13 EST
>
>In a message dated 1/4/2005 10:28:45 AM Eastern Standard Time,
>rustyhill at earthlink.net writes:
> >>Hey Yuri, you know what might be fun?  How about a stack of Yagis on 
>some
>reasonable sized band, such as 15, 20, or 40, used in a contest, alongside
>an appropriately scaled set of phased verticals in essentially the same
>location, operated by multi-ops going at it full bore.  Let 'em go head to
>head.  It would be interesting to compare logs afterwards.
>
>Rusty<<
>
>
>First you would need to "calibrate" the operators, give them the same setup
>and see if they come up with the same score :-)
>
>Yuri