[CQ-Contest] CQWW and 0 pointers

[Rick Dougherty NQ4I]

Hi Ken...nice analysis, but you have missed the mark...the two cases stated 
are not as representative as the past 10 years worth of contest data...I 
have historically had more zero pointers than anyone...why??

 I am loud in the NE US...my first hop I am guessing is in that area.....my 
competition is beaming EU also and they have that area to the rear of their 
antennas...its fairly obvious that I will make more zero pointers than they 
will...

For me to beam JA, I have my first hop in the NW US...another disadvantage 
but not as serious as the NE US...

Its really not about leveling the playing field for me to compete with the 
NE M-M's...its really more about making qso's and not getting any credit! 
Plain and simple...

Sure there is some dead air time when we cq and are not productive...but 
even 50% of my previous post is a reasonable number and that 3 hours+.....it 
sure would be nice to have an extra 3 hours to work some more dx!

I think the post by W4NZ hits the whole issue square on the head!

de Rick nq4i



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ken Claerbout" <k4zw at comcast.net>
To: <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2007 11:56 PM
Subject: [CQ-Contest] CQWW and 0 pointers


> >it would go a long ways toward leveling the playing field with my NE 
> >M-M's....a great
>>example of this is how much more fairer the cqwpx contest has become since
>>they give one points for same country....what it really will fall back to 
>>is
>>that this is still a dx contest...until I can work as many as the other
>>M-M's, we will still be playing  catch up....but if I had 6.25 more hours 
>>to
>>find and work other stations my score would also reflect that...go figure?
>
> There are a couple of problems with this simple analysis.
>
>
>
> 1.)      The numbers given are not put in any context relative to the 
> competition.  In the 2006 CQWW DX SSB contest, NQ4I had about 800 zero 
> point US QSO's.  K3LR (#1 high claimed and beacon station on all bands), 
> had approximately 640 zero pointers.  Roughly a delta of 160 zero point 
> QSOs.  In the 2006 CQWW CW contest, NQ4I had roughly 390 zero point US 
> QSO's and W3LPL (#1 high claimed and another beacon station) had 
> approximately 440 zero point US stations.  In this case a delta of about 
> 50 QSO's to LPL's supposed disadvantage.
>
> 2.)      If these zero pointers are wasting time that would otherwise be 
> spent working something for point value, then the contact would have to be 
> made during medium to peak rate periods.  No doubt that is the case for 
> some percentage of the overall total.  But, I'll bet a lot of the zero 
> point QSO's are also followed by one or more CQ's before the next station 
> is worked.  Anyone who has operated at a multi-multi knows there are a lot 
> of slow periods especially as you wait for bands to open or, on bands that 
> are not very active at this point in the sunspot cycle (10 & 15 meters for 
> example).  Rates the second day are almost always slower than the first 
> too.
>
>
>
> If someone wants to make the case that these QSO's should have a point 
> value because working them is senseless or a PITA, then fine.  (I 
> certainly don't support it though)  But, if you want to claim it should be 
> done because it would level the playing field with the Northeast 
> multi-multi's, I don't think the data is there to support it.  At least 
> not to the extent it is being portrayed.
>
>
>
> Ken K4ZW
>
>
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