[CQ-Contest] technical challenge

[Paul J. Piercey]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com 
> [mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of 
> Richard DiDonna NN3W
> Sent: May 29, 2007 00:12
> To: Ev Tupis; cq-contest at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] technical challenge
> 
> I think it can cut both ways.  If things are close, there is 
> absolutely an incentive to flooring it for whatever time 
> remains in the contest to "win". 
> Indeed, in many contests we already have "semi" real time 
> scores - QSO numbers.  We see this in WAE, Sprint, Sweeps, 
> and WPX.  For contests like Sprint and Sweeps with a finite 
> number of mults, the Q number is a real sign.
> 

This is what made it more fun for me in the WPX contests. I probably never
would have gotten my best score ever had I not been in a battle with another
local op in the SSB contest and I may have packed it in after the 2 hours of
CQing on 15M with no replies in the CW contest but I knew that one more
contact would get me closer to any arbitrary goal I set for myself. I ended
up getting 5 new countries on that band and mode.

> On the other hand, if I see that I am being murdered in a 
> contest - 36 hours into a 48 hour test, I might very well 
> throw in the towel and just quit.
> 

Why? I can only assume that this attitude would come from the singular
desire to win above all else.

> Now folks keep mentioning the same tired phrase over and over 
> - "I agree that if you're looking at a real time scoreboard, 
> you're losing."  This is a load of crap.  It takes five 
> seconds to type in a url or to hit a refresh button on your 
> internet browser.  I guarantee you that folks spend more time 
> picking their noses or digging ear wax out of their ears than 
> the five seconds that it takes to type in a url....
> 

Not even that... if you are connected continuously, you can reduce/minimize
the site window and view it at your leisure. That's what I did although the
site kept crapping out occasionally.

> Now if scores are to be posted, it must be callsign, entry 
> category, and raw 
> score only.   Giving out mult counts or QSO counts or band 
> information gives 
> away too much information, and should be supressed.
> 
> 73 Rich NN3W

Yep, I agree with that. Any more information and you get into that
most-favoured realm of "assisted or non-assisted" and I'd rather not go
there again.

73 -- Paul VO1HE