[CQ-Contest] Competing in the Daylight

[Guy Molinari]

Kelly raises an important point.   We absolutely cannot do anything to 
discourage/alienate the casual
contester in any way.   IMHO, they are the bread and butter and the top 
scorers seem to lure in
a large number of "uniques".

I'm not sure what the answer is except that 1) particpation should be 
voluntary, and 2) there must
be a compelling value proposition for those that do opt in.

Given the large volume of good, positive, thoughtful opinions and insights, 
I think it might be an
idea thats time has come.


73's
Guy, N7ZG


=====================================
think the idea of competing in daylight is interesting, but I suspect it
would be of limited popular appeal. And I don't know if anyone's thought
about how we pay for this.

The bread and butter of any contest is not the hard-core contester who gets
on for every event and would be all over this like leaves on a lawn. If we
only had hard-core contesters to work, WW could be over in a few hours. The
casual guys we need won't pay for real-time scoring and would likely not
bother entering a contest where it's required.

So I don't think it would be wise to institute a "must compete in daylight"
rule in the existing major contests. Many folk just wouldn't bother. But
making it an option for those who wish it may work. I hesitate to think of
the user fee it would require given the bandwidth and server-time involved,
however.

I seriously doubt any of the major sponsors have the cash. So all that's
left would be either user-pay or manufacturer sponsorship. Coming up, the
ICOM World-Wide DX Contest, followed by the Yaesu Sweepstakes.

Perhaps the first step, after publishing logs, is to arrange for a test
contest to gauge appeal.

As neat as the idea may be, if not enough people want it, it ain't gonna
happen.

73, kelly
ve4xt