[CQ-Contest] re-newing the 10 meter contest

[Kenneth E. Harker]

On Sun, Dec 09, 2007 at 09:07:16AM -0800, N7DF wrote:
>    
> I don't think anyone will argue that the 10 meter contest will reach its 
>   ultimate goal either this year or next as the sunspot cycles reach their lowest points since the contest was begun.

Ultimate goal?  Do you mean "For Amateurs worldwide to exchange QSO 
information with as many stations as possible on the 10-meter band."?  
    
>   Maybe now is the time to restart the contest as a true reflection of up to date technology.  One way to do this is to change the scoring to more realistically make the goals of the contest meaningful.  

What's not meaningful about the current scoring formula?  

Here are some arguments in favor of the current exchange/formula:

* You cannot predict the state a US station is located in based on their 
  call sign.
* You cannot predict the serial number that a DX station will send you.
* The exchange elements of a state/province or serial number are user 
  friendly for new contesters/new HF operators.
* Not everyone knows their grid locator.  I can talk someone into giving me
  all the elements of a Sweepstakes exchange, as painful as that can be, 
  but I cannot necessarily tell someone what their grid locator is. 
* The Stew Perry contest has been growing in popularity, but despite being 
  a world wide contest, it still has only about half the participation of 
  the North American-centric ARRL 160 Meter Contest, which has an 
  exchange/scoring formula much more like the 10 Meter Contest. 

>   This could best be done by copying the scoring system of the Stew Perry Top Band Challenge and base scores on distance communicated rather than geographical location.  This would adjust for the concentrated amateur radio populations in some areas and encourage operation from more remote areas.

So, is the motivation for change that there are stations in "remote" areas 
that are at a disadvantage or have inadequate incentive to operate?  In
my experience, activity and results are much more strongly correlated with 
the fortunes of propagation than anything else.  
    
>   In the past the scoring would not have been possible due to the complications of determining distances but the software developed for the SP takes all the work out of the scoring. 
>    
>    With the Grid Square as the exchange it becomes much more meaningful as well as giving the data for score calculations.

It would be interesting to have a big HF contest that uses grid locators.
I do not know if distance scoring makes as much sense for an HF contest 
as it might for a VHF or 160 meter contest.  We already have motivation to
work a lot of DX just for the various multipliers out there.

-- 
Kenneth E. Harker WM5R
kenharker at kenharker.com
http://www.kenharker.com/