[CQ-Contest] NA February Sprint

[Steve London]

No doubt, 20 meters really stunk for everyone last weekend. However, a one time 
anomaly is not a good reason to change what has worked well for the past 25 years.

If you question whether this last Sprint was an anomaly, compare with the 
results of the February, 2008 CW Sprint. The solar flux was exactly the same - 
70-71, but the number of 20 meter QSO's made by everyone, east and west coast 
alike, was much higher.

73,
Steve, N2IC

Pete Smith wrote:
> Bravo, Ted!  Succinctly stated, good data, asking the right questions.
> 
> I favor a test of moving the February Sprint an hour earlier, but keeping 
> the bands as is.  Reasoning, chiefly, is that it's a minimal change and 
> doesn't penalize guys without good 160M antennas, and doing it once (say, 
> next year) should help to illuminate the cause of the much-more-profound 
> bias in February.
> 
> 73, Pete N4ZR
> 
> At 02:20 PM 2/10/2009, Ted Bryant wrote:
>> On the 3830 reflector, Andy N2NT asked:
>>
>> "...Anyone for moving the Feb sprint an hour earlier or to 160m? Well, at
>> least till the spots come back..."
>>
>> Interesting ideas, Andy.
>>
>> In the Northern California Contest Club's annual Sprint "Ladder"
>> competition, there are three competitive categories. One is strictly for
>> NCCC members but the other two divide the U.S. into two groups: stations
>> East and West of the Mississippi River.  Apparently someone recognized that
>> there must be some geographical/propagational bias that warranted these
>> groupings. Also, the Ladder competition is held across 20/40/80 and 160
>> meters. Applying the NCCC Ladder competition's categories to the claimed
>> scores for the FEBRUARY Sprint CW for the last 5 years shows some
>> interesting details.
>>
>> # stations in top 20:   West of the Miss      East of the Miss
>>   2005                         16                    4
>>   2006                         17                    3
>>   2007                         14                    6
>>   2008                         13                    7
>>   2009                         14                    6
>>
>> # stations in top 10:   West of the Miss      East of the Miss
>>   2005                          9                    1
>>   2006                          9                    1
>>   2007                          8                    2
>>   2008                          6                    4
>>   2009                          8                    2
>>
>> # stations in top 5:    West of the Miss      East of the Miss
>>   2005                          5                    0
>>   2006                          5                    0
>>   2007                          5                    0
>>   2008                          5                    0
>>   2009                          5                    0
>>
>> To no one's surprise, I'm sure, these statistics show a pretty clear
>> advantage for stations West of the Mississippi River in the February CW
>> Sprint.
>>
>>
>> Let's look at the statistics for the last 5 SEPTEMBER CW Sprints:
>>
>> # stations in top 20:    West of the Miss     East of the Miss
>>   2004                          9                    11
>>   2005                         14                     6
>>   2006                          9                    11
>>   2007                         10                    10
>>   2008                          8                    12
>>
>> # stations in top 10:    West of the Miss      East of the Miss
>>   2004                          4                     6
>>   2005                          8                     2
>>   2006                          6                     4
>>   2007                          4                     6
>>   2008                          6                     4
>>
>> # stations in top 5:     West of the Miss      East of the Miss
>>   2004                          2                     3
>>   2005                          4                     1
>>   2006                          4                     1
>>   2007                          3                     2
>>   2008                          4                     1
>>
>> The September Sprint is much more equitable but it is still tough to break
>> into the top 5 if you are East of the Mississippi.
>>
>> So, to follow up on Andy N2NT's question:
>> - Should there be any changes made to the February Sprint?
>> - Should the February Sprint start an hour earlier?
>> - Should 160m be added? (or replace 20m?)
>>   -or-
>> - Should Sprint results simply be reported with different/additional
>> categories? (sorry, Tree!)
>>
>> 73, Ted W4NZ
>>