[CQ-Contest] The Great 30 hour WPX Debate

[Jimk8mr at aol.com]

A few comments, even though I don't really have a dog in this fight. I  don't 
seriously operate WPX.  I think chasing prefixes is dumb.   Once upon a time 
it made sense, when they reflected geography and population,  like JA1-0, W1, 
K1, WA1, WB1, etc.  Now that it's just a matter  of a DR4 or NV8 or KQ7, 
prefixes are meaningless.
 
A quick look at the 3830 USA listing for the 2007 WPX SSB showed about 15  
single ops who operated full time, and another 15 who operated between 30 and 36 
 hours.  This is hardly a big number.  (There was no non-USA listing on  the 
3830 archives.).
 
IMHO a contest is enhanced if the biggest guns are forced off the air for  at 
least a few hours of prime time. For other than the very biggest/best located 
 stations, recent SSB DX contests have been a matter of tuning around and  
working the same hundred or so guys on 20 meters. Once you're worked them,  
there is not much else to do, so you turn off the radio and go find  something 
else.  If instead those big guys occasionally went away, a new  bunch of guys 
would be able to fill in those CQing frequencies, giving both  them, and the 
other searchers and pouncers, something new to work.
 
I didn't realize it was Bob's lobbying of N8BJQ that caused one-point same  
country qsos to happen. I thought it was when I started competing for the  
biggest zero point score, working as many USA qsos and prefixes as possible, for  
a total score of zero.  AFAIK I hold the # 2 all time record for that one,  
trailing only the esteemed Dr. Bafoofnik, W9XR. A record that now can never be  
broken.
 
73  -  Jim  K8MR
 
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 3/23/2008 6:49:51 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
kq2m at earthlink.net writes:

Well I  guess I forgot the first rule of reflector
posting.  For every post  there are people ready to shoot
at you because of things that have nothing  to do with
actual experience in the matter at hand.  So be  it.

Having said that, it's good to debate this stuff and get it
"all  out there".  Maybe some good will come of it.  One
can  hope.

To my good friend to the North, KL7RA, Rich it is always
a  pleasure to hear from you.  Given your aurora experience
I am  surprised you would not want a 10 hour contest
with a scoring  handicap.  But if you did, you wouldn't
have the stones to contest  from Alaska!  :-)

You reference WPXCW, which here in New  England
has radically difference and poorer propagation than
WPX  SSB.  I can recall my share of WPXCW contests
which had such bad  propagation replete with K indexes
of 8 and 9, that I couldn't even hear EU  on 20!  I can't
possibly imagine how much worse that would be in  KL7.

But fortunately most of us are not faced with such  adverse
propagation and would prefer to operate more, not less.

I  don't agree with your characterization that my preferences
for this contest  have been selfish, actually my "record" shows
quite the opposite since I  personally lobbied N8BJQ to
add 1 point US q's for the benefit of all, as  well as lobbying
for 36 hours to remove the cavernous dead time and  increase
activity, all of which were highly successful rule  changes.
Why?  Because it made the contest better.  The explosion  in
activity is proof beyond a doubt.

While I have not been in Dayton  for 10 years and do not hear
the chatter in the halls (but I am considering  a remote operation
to remedy that)  :-), I can tell you that I am  flattered that some would
think I "own" the contest.  But you are  wrong when you imply that the
36 hours is a winning format for me.

I  won when it was 30 hours.  I won when it was 36 hours.  I would have  won
if it was 28, 38, or 46 hours. There was even the year when I started  at
1430z and operated the last 33 1/2 hours of the contest straight through  and
still beat everyone else in the Northeast.  The reasons I won were  simple, I
adapted my strategy to the time allotted, the time of the cycle,  the point
and mult ratios and constantly made decisions on the fly how to  maximize my
score.  Although some New England stations boast of simply  pushing F1, that
style of operating is alien to me.  With the wealth  of stations to work and
the mults, even in the lean years there are so many  operating choices to
think about.  This is the one contest where I  would  use three radios if I
could have figure out how to do  it.

In about half the years that I won, I beat great ops using a BETTER  station
than mine with similar or better propagation in Eastern Mass/NH,  FL, etc.  I
simply out-operated them.  I have also won this  contest from FIVE different
states while operating from 1, 2 and 3  land.  In fact while I operated from
3 land, I beat the New England  stations!  Do I operate any differently if my
competition is in Texas,  Fla or Mass?  Absolutely not.  Since you never
watched me operate  you would not be aware of "all the little things" that I
know about  propagation and strategy in this contest, better than anyone
else, that I  do each year.  But no matter.  If you wish to believe that I
won  because 36 hours is a magic number and that all my proposed rule  changes
are "selfish", then you really know nothing about me at all.   Having been
fortunate to win every major DX contest at least once including  WAE, IARU,
160 and 10m and having won most more than once, I can tell you  that I always
operate, EVERY MINUTE, to make the best possible score,  regardless of the
rules.  That is the best that I can do and that  anyone can do.  Anyone who
achieves that is a WINNER!, and it doesn't  matter what place you finish in.

The best and toughest competition is  with yourself, and operating to the
maximum ability of yourself and your  station.  There is nothing harder to
live up to, than doing your  best.  That is my goal.  How is it possible to
meaningfully  compare to anyone else who has a different geographic location,
antennas,  terrain, propagation, equipment, etc?  This is why I don't care
about  what other ops are doing.  I don't compete with them, only  myself.
Only twice have I operated what I consider to be the "perfect  contest".
That's twice in 30+ years, and both times I did not win first  place, but I
still remember the contest with a smile and pride that I will  never forget,
and both of those times are at the absolute top of my list of  operating
experiences.

Back to WPXSSB...  I love this contest  more than any other.  I always have
and always will.  My  enjoyment of it is why I have done so well, not the
other way around. I  feel passionately about this contest the way others do
about SS or Sprint,  to IARU (which is also a favorite of mine), and this
passion is why I just  can sit around quietly and let people propose a rule
change that I know  will hurt this contest for all of us.

I don't want to make what I  believe are frivolous and poor quality rule
changes, because the fantastic  level of activity speaks for itself.  In fact
is BECAUSE of the  existing rules, not despite them, that the activity level
has grown so  much.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.  The activity  level
speaks for itself.

You can choose to believe that my desire to  keep the operating time to 36
hours is "selfish", but that would be  wrong.  My desire is to keep a great
contest GREAT and not to "tinker"  with what is working so well.  Some of the
ops who want to change to  30 hours, are the same guys who have never made a
serious effort in this  contest, yet speak with the conviction  that 30 hours
is  "better".  They will be the same people that if 30 hours became the  old
rule, again, they would find a reason to not do 30 hours then  either.  Same
as before when it was 30 hours.  Only it won't  matter to them, since they
won't be operating full time and frankly don't  really care about this
contest anyway.  But it will matter to me and  many others who truly enjoy
the ability to work people for six hours more,  and with a lot less dead
time.  WPX SSB is the best combination of DX  and stateside contests with the
best propagation of the year, and with the  wonderful opportunity for "little
guys" to be mults and have lots of space  to run and feel loud.  It is the
contest that really "turned me on" to  radio contesting back in 1975, 33
years ago this coming  weekend.

Keep eating those greasy cheeseburgers my friend. It is always  good to hear
"Radio Alaska" and I will be looking for you this  weekend!

73
Bob  KQ2M
kq2m at earthlink.net




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