[CQ-Contest] Distanced-Based Contest Concept

[W2RU - Bud Hippisley]

Kelly Taylor wrote:

>I like the idea of distance-based scoring (why do two stations who can see
>each other across the Strait of Gibralter get to count their Q at, what,
>four times the amount that a station in Nfld can claim for working
>California?)
>
Kelly, I don't disagree with the grumbles about the different values 
given QSO points on/in different continents.  But distance-based scoring 
strikes me as MF- or VHF-oriented thinking.  By contrast, when 10 meters 
is open it's a lot easier for me to work Europe than FP8.  You're kinda 
ignoring skip zones and other HF propagation details.  Living in the 
northeastern USA as I do, perhaps I should lobby for extra points when 
working stations whose short-path direction from me is through the 
auroral zone.  Why is distance, per se, the *only* measure of 
difficulty?  Answer:  It isn't.  So let's not dwell on it.

A superlative station / operator combo will work more multipliers than 
most (by having a big enough signal and good enough receiver to pick up 
close-in weak signals on 10 meters, for instance) while making more QSOs 
than most.  To do that involves an ability to work nearby stuff, 
far-away stuff, side-scatter stuff, etc., etc.   I don't see any reason 
to mess with that, or to single out the "far-away stuff" as more 
deserving of additonal points than any other facet of propagation.

Call me old-fashioned but, having suffered through domestic CD Parties 
during a time when west coasters got 9 points per QSO to the 5 points 
per QSO for everyone else long after that differential had outlived its 
intended purpose, I don't see why a QSO isn't just a QSO, and the 
multiplier is countries or states or sections or grid squares or 
whatever a specific contest sponsor chooses.  I would modify this only 
to the extent that in a "DX" contest perhaps contacts with your own 
country should have little or no QSO point value.

The world wasn't created with the intent of making life "fair" for 
contesters.  We can always move to, or visit, a place where we feel we 
have an advantage, if it's a big enough priority for us.  I've found I 
do much better in CQ WW if I get in it for the sheer fun of making QSOs, 
rather than trying to "win" it from my QTH.    And if I can't work 
anybody Friday night, I know I'll be able to when ARRL DX comes around 
in a few months.

Bud, W2RU