[CQ-Contest] WPX Survey results #4 - Operating Time Limits

[David Gilbert]

I'm not sure the 15% figure for a return to 30 hours is totally valid (I 
voted to stay at 36 hours, by the way).  The survey results are of 
course very interesting and very useful, but we have to be careful about 
using survey results to assess the attitudes of people who may not have 
participated in the survey. 

Randy initially sent out the questionnaire to those who had submitted 
logs for WPX contests in 2008 and 2009, and then later opened it up for 
anyone else that might subscribe to the various contesting newsletters 
or visit contesting web sites or otherwise find out about the survey.   
He pretty much hit everyone he had access to, but my guess is that the 
survey still missed lots of casual contesters, and in particular the 
very sub-group of hams who might NOT be serious contesters because of 
the time commitment involved for a serious entry.  It's kind of like 
going to a Mexican restaurant and asking the patrons if they'd come more 
often or spend more money there if the restaurant added Chinese food to 
the menu ... too much pre-filtering of the participants.

If we want to know whether shorter time categories would lure more 
people into contesting, or make them more seriously active, we need to 
particularly ask that group of people.  One possible way to accomplish 
that might be to analyze the submitted logs to find the callsigns that 
were reasonably active but did NOT submit logs, and then bounce that 
list off QRZ.com or similar database to find their email addresses.

Just a thought ...

73,
Dave   AB7E



brian coyne wrote:
> I am open to the idea of creating a limited time category. However, I don’t want to give people a reason not to be on the air and making contacts!  What do you think is the best solution?  (K5ZD).
>
> Your survey shows that less than 15% want a return to the 30hr limit.
> With regard to the limited time category presumably those who requested this must fall into the 'Other' category of 3.4% so far fewer than 20% want less operating time.
>
> Remember you will not just add another category if you add say a 12 hour section, you will need all the sub categories for that section too such as hp, lp, qrp, assisted, etc etc, guys will want certificates, plaques, needing more sponsors. Also ops who would normally have entered the full section will 'cherry pick' the best hours chasing prizes in the new section.
>
> Not a change to be considered lightly - wpx is great as it is - don't mess with it.
>
> 73  Brian 5B4AIZ  (C4Z).
>
> --- On Fri, 6/11/09, Randy Thompson K5ZD <k5zd at charter.net> wrote:
>
>   
>> From: Randy Thompson K5ZD <k5zd at charter.net>
>> Subject: [CQ-Contest] WPX Survey results #4 - Operating Time Limits
>> To: cq-contest at contesting.com
>> Date: Friday, 6 November, 2009, 1:59
>> The latest chapter of the WPX Contest
>> survey results have been posted at
>>  http://www.cqwpx.com/blog/
>>
>> This installment covers the question asking if the maximum
>> operating time
>> for single operators should be changed.  The comments
>> range far and wide and
>> are very entertaining!
>>
>> 73,
>>
>> Randy Thompson, K5ZD
>>
>> Director - CQ WPX Contest
>>
>> email: k5zd at cqwpx.com
>> web: www.cqwpx.com
>>
>>
>> PS - Direct link to the post:  http://www.cqwpx.com/blog/?p=49
>>
>>
>>
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>>     
>
>
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