[CQ-Contest] The United States of Europe: Was 0 pointers

[PaulKB8N at aol.com]

I've lived in Germany for two years and contested extensively from  there.  
It is a completely different ball game.
 
Take a map of the United States and superimpose it over Western and central  
Europe.  While you might be able to position it in different  directions to 
get slightly different results, you could probably find over  50 DX entities 
within an area that fit within the confines of the  United States boundaries.
 
Let's flip the argument.  To level the playing field, let's  just classify 
all Western and Central European DX entities as the  "United States of Europe"  
and not allow them to count as individual DX  entities or as points for each 
other.  I think there would be a huge cry  from everybody there, and gigantic 
score reductions.
 
Contesting from Europe is a such a hoot!  I used a short, low  temporary wire 
antenna on 80M and 160M and could easily work 40 to 50  multipliers without 
even trying.  There is always a plethora of 1 pointers  and DX multipliers on 
almost every band any time of the day.
 
We have fifty states within the United States, all of which are somewhat  
self-governing democratic republics under a centralized federal  government.  
 
I wish CQWW and other major contests could be the same here as they  are in 
Europe.  If every state was a multiplier, we would have  rough parity with 
Europe and, at least from my perspective  of having lived in both Europe and the 
United States, the contest  would be better from both sides of the pond.
 
Paul, K5AF



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