[CQ-Contest] Another principle for contest rule evaluation.

[Scott Currier]

My first principle was that contest rules should support the contest objectives. 

The second principle is that rules that creates a major loophole or rewards you for something that is not in support of the contest objectives should be avoided. 

Let's look at the CQ WW DX contest again.

How does taking continents into account affect CQ WW DX scoring? It creates a loophole effect. Two people, both in Turkey, one in Asia and the other in Europe, both work 100 Europeans. One gets 300 points the other gets 100 points. 

The objectives are to work countries and zones. Why are the sponsors letting something that is not in support of the objectives make a major difference in scoring? That doesn't make any sense to me. 

The objective says one thing but the scoring says to work the population centers but do it from an adjacent continent. 

A distance of a few miles, same number of contacts, countries worked, and zones worked, yet very different scores. Clearly this is an undesirable effect. A major loophole or anomaly that if the contest scoring and rules were aligned to the contest objectives would never have come into being. 

If the contintent rule was removed and all the contacts were the same number of points your exact location would not be as important and a loophole would be closed. 

The next loophole is small country next to large population center. Same problem as the continent rule. Answer, allow contacts within your dxcc entity for the same number of points. 

The contest objectives says to work hams in as many countries and zones as possible. But, it doesn't address what the distribution should be. 

Therefore, you need to work as many dxcc entities  and zones for multipliers but once you have as many as you can possibly get, there is no merit to working any more. The rest of the contest is bulk Q's. Therefore I you make 1000 contacts. The contacts included at least one person in each of the 40 zones and 1 person in 60 dxcc entities, it really doesn't matter where the other 900 Q's are. Theoretically they could all be in the country next to yours. That being the case whether they are in the same DXCC entity or the one next door, it doesn't make any difference. 

You still have worked people in 40 zones and 60 countries. 

The objective says to work as many people in as many dxcc entities and cq zones as possible. You're still following the objective. You need to get those mults to win as well as the bulk. 

Allowing contacts within your own dxcc entity goes along with the objective of working as many people as possible. Your country is a dxcc entity, just like all of the rest. You can't win without the mults, your country is a mult and at the beginning of the 'test a double mult so working your own dxcc entity is in alignment with the objectives and because of the multipliers it is not a good strategy to just work stations in your own DXCC entity the rule wouldn't fly in the face of the stated contest objectives even if all non mult contacts were made in your own dxcc entity. 

You've still worked 1000 people in 60 countries and 40 zones. The fact that 900 of them were in your own DXCC entity doesn't fly in the face of the stated objectives. 

Mults are mults, bulk is bulk. 

Once you have worked as many dxcc entities and zones as you possibly can you've fulfilled the different countries and zones part of the objective. The other objective is to work as many people as possible. 

Principle two is that loopholes and anomalies in scoring that result in rewards for technicalities should be avoided. Rules that create such anomalies need to be removed. 

The CQ WW DX contest is about zones, bulk Q's, and dxcc entities. The continents part of the scoring creates unwanted and detrimental loopholes in the scoring and thus needs to be removed. 

Your country is a dxcc entity and is in a zone if you work someone in your country they are in the world and thus should be counted just like any other contact if the stated objectives of the contest are to be believed. By not scoring that way loopholes like the small country next to the population center are created. In other words, contacts 10 miles in this direction are worth something while contacts 10 miles in that direction are not. The eastern part of the US is a population center. Whether you make those contacts from Halifax or Boston, it shouldn't make any difference. As it stands now, if you are next to the population center but not in it, you have an advantage that does not result from your abilities as a contester or your ability to assemble a good station. In other words, a loophole.  

Rules that result in loopholes should be avoided as much as possible. 







 






 		 	   		  
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