[CQ-Contest] State QSO parties and CW

[Tim Gardner]

>From: John Geiger n5ten at yahoo.com

[snip]
>With the exception of maybe the California QSO party,
>there seems to be much more CW than SSB activity for
>state QSO parties.  
[snip]
>Does the extra points that CW QSOs score relative to
>SSB QSOs make everyone stick with CW?

The point differential can make a significant difference in at least some QSO Parties.  For the Indiana QSO Party, multipliers are awarded by mode, so it is critical to operate both SSB and CW to maximize points.
Perhaps the biggest reason is that generally poor propagation (low sunspots) has simply made it much more difficult to complete SSB QSOs.  This has certainly been observed in the INQP for at least the last two years.
Another factor is that many (most?) QSO parties have a shorter duration than most other contests.  That makes it difficult or impossible to take full advantage of the normal daily changes in propagation.
Tim - N9LF
(blatant disclaimer: INQP is this Saturday, May 3, Noon-midnight EDT)


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