[CQ-Contest] Time for a fix

[K3BU at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/31/2005 7:45:20 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
pbarkey at bsu.edu writes:
>>Does anyone else have a problem with this:<<


The old sore subject with existing contest rules. The contest rules were made 
way back, with the best intentions to have "right and fair" rules. Things 
change, rules get out of step with reality and progress. On one hand, we are 
trying to have them stable, preserve records and have some continuity, especially 
in popular contests, on the other hand trying to make them as fair as possible 
(WPX made some welcome changes).

The wisdom is, study the rules, see what gives you advantage and if you are 
very serious, go there, get the best equipment and be the best operator. The 
result is some stations like HC8, D4, EA8, CT3, P40, VY2 etc. - taking advantage 
of rule bias and propagation properties. 

Are the contest rules made to be fair? No way Jose.

Knowing the reasons for pro and con, I tried to come up with the best contest 
rules at the best time of the year that would address some of the 
shortcomings we are subjected to in existing major and popular contests. It is Tesla Cup, 
using Grid Squares for multipliers and scoring system that does not have 
gross bias. Rules were rehashed with some leading contesters and the present 
version is at
http://www.computeradio.us/TeslaCup.htm
It has been around for few years but is still the best kept contest secret. 
I tried to get ARRL, CQ to be godparrents for it, help with promotion, but 
they turned it down. 

So what do we do? Get on the bandwagon and make it the best contest there is, 
or let the "establishment" go on with the "unfair" contests and bitch about 
it?

I hope that this year I will have more time and resources to promote it, to 
have some incentives to attract wider participation. We are still open for 
suggestions how to make it even better. There is your chance.

73  Yuri, K3BU.us

The 160m contests all time records are now updated and at
http://members.aol.com/k3bu/160Records.htm
Soon to be moved to my new web site.