[CQ-Contest] Categories, Participation and Competition

[Pete Smith]

A few years ago, several of us proposed a test of something called a 
24-Hour Challenge, which we proposed to run concurrently with a major 
DX contest, relying on the official log-checking to determine, 
separately, winners of a 24-hour category.  As a part of this, we did 
a survey on CQ-Contest, which attempted to determine whether the 
availability of such a category would help, hurt or have little 
effect on participation.  Granting the inherent limitations of this 
sort of survey, the balance of responses suggested it would help, so 
we went ahead with publicizing the idea.

To my great surprise, the response from the grandees of the contest 
community amounted to a public lynching.  The climax was my being 
angrily upbraided by one such grandee at Dayton for "trying to ruin 
my contest."

I kind of lost my stomach for the idea after a few of those, so it 
never happened.  Stan's suggestion indicates that the idea continues 
to have some appeal.  Most of it was documented on this reflector at 
the time, if anyone's interested now.

73, Pete N4ZR

   At 10:17 AM 6/16/2009, Stan Stockton wrote:
>Attempts have been made in some contests to create new categories 
>where ones with wires or tribanders can compete on a more level 
>basis.  Most contests have categories for different power levels.
>
>The one item that I think is most important and currently ignored is 
>the time of operation.  In a world of children, grandchildren, other 
>family obligations, honey do's to keep the YF happy, and an aging 
>group of contesters, many cannot compete because they cannot work 
>the contest the entire period, which in many cases is 48 hours.
>
>I would only have categories that encourage enhancement of station 
>performance and instead include categories in a 48 hour contest for 
>perhaps 12 hour, 24 hour and 48 hour operating time - 24 and 48 hour 
>for sure.  There are a lot of people out there who would do really 
>well if they could stay up for 48 hours but cannot ever win anything 
>with a 24 hour effort.  Off times should be longer than what most 
>are used to having in Sweepstakes and other contests with time 
>limits   Perhaps a maximum of four off-times with a minimum of 6 
>hours for each would be appropriate for a 24 hour entry.
>
>I can see a lot of people getting excited about competing in a 
>contest if they had a way of doing it without having to commit to 
>the entire 48 hour period.
>
>Stan, K5GO
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