[CQ-Contest] WPX Plaques - Who should win them?

[Julius Fazekas]

Hi Bob,

The only thing I would disagree with is the Olympic medal analogy. You're talking about an event where the competitors play in the exact same conditions, which is not the case in radiosport. Your earlier point on the VE advantage over the US illustrates that concept well.

I would guess thoughts along those lines where what caused some sponsors to impose restrictions on back to back plaque awards.

Tough choices for the contest committees...

73
julius

Julius Fazekas
N2WN

Tennessee Contest Group
http://www.k4ro.net/tcg/index.html

Tennessee QSO Party
http://www.tnqp.org/

Elecraft K2/100 #4455
Elecraft K3/100 #366


--- On Sun, 3/1/09, Robert L. Shohet <kq2m at earthlink.net> wrote:

> From: Robert L. Shohet <kq2m at earthlink.net>
> Subject: [CQ-Contest] WPX Plaques - Who should win them?
> To: cq-contest at contesting.com
> Date: Sunday, March 1, 2009, 2:09 PM
> Hi all,
> 
> I like the idea of the NA plaque going to the winner of NA
> regardless of whether a US, VE or other NA station has won
> it.
> 
> It is much, much harder to win NA as a US op because of the
> disparity in scoring - all US-US count as 1 point
> regardless of band,
> but US-VE can be 2 or 4 points and US-DX can be 3 or 6. 
> Canadian
> ops therefore have a big advantage over US ops in scoring,
> and other
> NA stations only a slight additional advantage over VE ops.
>  This is true
> for CQWW as well.
> 
> In SSB contests, the VE ops also have a large advantage
> over US ops in
> the fact that they can work DX directly in the lower qrm DX
> phone subbands,
> whereas the US can not do so.  This skews the scoring even
> more against the
> US ops. compared to VE and other NA ops.
> 
> So if someone in the US  happens to have the highest score
> in NA, a pretty rare occurrence, they should win the NA
> plaque too!
> 
> I also believe that the winner of any category should win a
> plaque every
> time, regardless of how many wins in a row there have been.
> 
> Several times I have won US SOABHP and not received a
> plaque
> because I had won the plaque the year before.  Likewise, I
> have also
> won a plaque in a contest where I finished 2nd, and someone
> else won
> back to back years and did NOT win the plaque the next
> year.  I think this 
> is a
> silly practice, even though well-meant and actually
> DIScourages 
> participation
> from serious competitors.
> 
> It's like awarding the Olympic gold medal for
> "Fastest Man" to the 2nd place
> winner of the 100M dash, just because the Fastest Man won
> the event the year
> before.  That would cheapen the gold and cause the best
> competitors to lose 
> interest,
> possibly harming the quality of the event.
> 
> 73
> Bob KQ2M
> 
> 
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