[CQ-Contest] 2010 WPX Rule Change Review

[Randy Thompson K5ZD]

I want to thank everyone who took the time to respond to the announcement of
the preliminary rules for the 2010 WPX Contest. Just as with the online
survey in August, the review period is part of a continuing effort to bring
the participants into the rule change process.

Those who were most critical of the changes tended to make their comments
public.  Those in favor of the changes tended to send private emails. 

There were a number of comments on minor grammar, typos, and word selection
in the rules. These have been evaluated and will be included in the final
rules.

The bulk of the comments were in regard to two areas: 1) the changes to the
Multi-Single rules and 2) the distance limit for clubs.

Multi-Single

These rule changes apply to WPX only.  The CQ WW Contest has its own
separate rules and processes.

There seemed to be two camps: 1) those who liked the idea that a single
transmitter category indeed be limited to one signal and 2) those who enjoy
the combination of running and DX hunting that having two stations provide.
There were strong arguments made on both sides. 

The WPX competition committee has voted to change the Multi-Single rules
based on the following:

1. The previous multi-operator rules had 3 classes that all allowed multiple
transmitters. There is a real need for a true single transmitter category to
provide more opportunities for meaningful competition among more stations. 

2. Logs from some high scoring MS stations show running on two bands during
the first hours of the contest. They are essentially operating M2 and either
ignoring non-mult QSOs or working them and taking the point loss.  This is
inconsistent with the spirit of a category named Multi-Single.

3. In many cases, the top Multi-Single stations are scoring nearly the same
as Multi-Two entries. This further indicates the overlap of the old MS and
M2 categories.

4. The change is not being driven by any log checking issues. We are quite
capable of checking based on the old MS rules, even with many logs not
indicating the run/mult station as required by the rules. That said, the
complexity of the run and mult station rules was open to misinterpretation
or outright cheating.

5. We looked at many different options for how to redefine the category. We
wanted to 1) enforce that only one transmitter was making contacts, 2)
enable stations to chase multipliers, and 3) to define a structure that
would reward tactical and strategic decision making. Band changes per hour
meets these requirements, is simple, and can be checked based on log data.
It also follows the paradigm already established for the multi-two category.
Because other contests use this definition, we are confident the logging
software developers will be able to quickly update their code.

6. We seriously considered the suggestions to create a new (fourth)
multi-operator category. After much discussion, we rejected the idea due to
potential for confusion of two similarly named categories, the need to
create a new Cabrillo entry (with all the support work required to modify
robots, software, etc),  and because of the previously mentioned overlap
with the multi-two category. An overlay category isn't an option due to the
differences in the rules.

7. We recognize that this change may make some established MS records
difficult to achieve. With the WPX only counting multipliers once across all
bands, and with the growth in QSO totals and scores we have seen over time,
we feel that the records can and will be broken by teams that embrace the
new rules and determine how to maximize the value of band changes. Since
2010 should represent the beginning of a new sunspot cycle and better
conditions, now is the ideal time to make a change.
  
One message we heard loud and clear was the Multi-Single category's fun and
flexibility of being able to chase multipliers. There was concern that only
8 band changes/hour was not enough. For this reason, we will change the
final rules to allow 10 band changes per hour.


Club Rule

The club rule includes a distance limitation that all club members are
within a 275 km radius circle. This rule change was actually added last year
and is a copy of the CQWW club rule. We received numerous comments from
South America and Australia that the population density of contesters was
too low in their areas to enable them to meet this restriction.  Since the
main purpose of the club competition is to promote more activity in the
contest, we are sensitive to this issue.  At the same time, we are seeing
some clubs in other parts of the world claiming "virtual" members who live
far away from the local club area. We feel there needs to be some definition
of a club in order to enable meaningful competition.

One suggestion was to waive the distance limitation for clubs in South
America and Oceania.  We are uncomfortable with introducing this kind of
geographic bias in the rules, but seek comments from WPX participants in
other parts of the world. This change will NOT be made for the 2010 rules.



Randy Thompson, K5ZD

Director - CQ WPX Contest

email: k5zd at cqwpx.com
web: www.cqwpx.com

Blog: http://www.cqwpx.com/blog/?p=51