[CQ-Contest] a little more fairness?

brian coyne g4odv at yahoo.co.uk
Thu Dec 9 10:09:45 PST 2010


Having followed this debate I do feel that Prasad does make a very good suggestion with regard to the award of two points per inter-asian contacts, same would stand for inter oceana too.. It seems to me that there would be no great change in the order in which the results pan out but it would enable those asian/oc  ops to feel that they are getting a bit closer to other continental participants. There is only one main area of activity in asia which is JA with a fair number of UA0 and small but growing number of BY's but a look at the atlas shows how far those areas are from the main centres of activity in eu & usa. Moreover in terms of  other asian/oc participants there is a scarcity of  numbers for them to work, and the lower the band the harder it gets.
 
In case you think I omitted to mention the UA9's, that was deliberate as I want to illustrate  how in fact discrimination works against those distant asians. My country is in asia, right on the western flank, pretty well equi distant from New York and Tokyo. Along with many of the UA9's we are on the edge of eu which gains us 3 pt's per contact. This has the effect n practice of the following order. On the higher bands I will work JA only if the bands are not yet open to eu. I use this time looking for mults. I need only one from JA BY VU etc. I do not run, gathering a clutch of single pointers is not productive as, this is such valuable time for gathering mults before eu gets propagation which is one to two hours after 5B. As soon as eu starts to come in then I start to run them, I know this gives asia a raw deal from we western asians but that's the way to build a bigger score. When eu does come in for the eastern asians the window is very short
 compared to the window the eu's get to both NA, SA. & AF.
 
In respect of the lower bands distance is a real killer, apart from the big guns.most asians struggle to .get a meaningful number of three pointers. When I drop down from the higher bands there is no 'honey' period as there is already propagation to central eu, so it is strictly asia/oc mult hunting only, one each country/zone  amidst the qrm from the megawatt stn's. and then it's on to working those numerous eu's.followed by NA.
 
It has been suggested, by some NA stn's, that numbers of JA in cqww is decreasing, that may have been propagation related through recent lean years, but  a rule change to award 2 pts per qso may well rekindle their interest and would certainly be welcomed by other seanet and oceana operators. Certainly too I would be motivated to log more JA instead of tuning past their cq's.
 
73  Brian 5B4AIZ/C4Z. 
 
 
 


--- On Thu, 9/12/10, Prasad VU2PTT <vu2ptt at gmail.com> wrote:


From: Prasad VU2PTT <vu2ptt at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] a little more fairness?
To: "Mats Strandberg" <sm6lrr at gmail.com>
Cc: "CQ Contest" <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Date: Thursday, 9 December, 2010, 9:33


Mats, well said.

This is the reason why I come out to play at least the CQWW each year since
1987 - to have fun and compete with myself. In CQWW CW this year, I had last
year's certificate in front of me and I nearly doubled my score even though
I had to attend a wedding for 6 hours and spent 39 hours in the chair. That
is good for me :)

But, at a time when I am wrestling with the challenge of getting more hams
into contesting, these are the kinds of questions that pop up and which I
get by virtue of being the Contest Manager for the Indian national body -
the ARSI. Why a 2 point score for one continent, not for any of the others?
This does not mean these guys are threatening to break into the Top
10 straight away, nor will the number of VU2 hams coming out each year make
an impact on the final score of most entrants. Its just that they don't
understand the logic of it all and therefore tend to ask why - I could have
made a better score if i had a similar consideration. After all, like some
one else said, this is the World Wide contest...

Any way I will be back next year to have FUN but how many more can I bring
along to the party? I would like that to be many more than what we have now.
After concerted effort from several of our senior hams there a a few more VU
calls to work in contests nearly every weekend on most modes. We have some
promising youngsters and we will strive to find a way. :)

Thanks for all several private emails I received on this subject.  VA.

73 de Prasad VU2PTT


On Wed, Dec 8, 2010 at 12:26 PM, Mats Strandberg <sm6lrr at gmail.com> wrote:

> If we start to change points for different zones, this will create a huge
> mess. See CQWW as a contest where you first of all challenge your own
> previous results by building better antennas, increasing your own operating
> skills, learning to adapt to different conditions on different bands,
> search
> more efficiently for multipliers etc etc. When you think you have improved
> your own skills enough, start comparing with your neighbours in the same
> city, country, zone, continent... If you really want to win the CQWW
> contest, you need to also analyze which geographical location is the ideal.
> The globe is as it is...  I know for sure, regardless of antennas and
> skills, to win SOAB from Sweden or from Moscow will be impossible. BUT,
> there are always national records in different categories to aim for.
>
> Enjoy contesting, develop your station and your skills - and most of all,
> realize that we will never be able to achieve WRTC 2010 equal conditions
> for
> all contesters in CQWW ;) Have fun! Contesting is exciting, but not the
> most
> deadly serious in life...
>
> 73 de R3/SM6LRR, Mats
>
>
>
> 2010/12/7 <vk4ti at yahoo.com>
>
> > Charles for years the contesting community down under has said we cant
> > compete with the Hawaiians for Oceania -
> > Recently from the antipodes the ZL8X team did just that - competed and
> > broke the Oceania MM record - why ? They had very good ops, a good
> location
> > and even better antenna.
> > There are only a handful of good stations in Oceania - I am one of the
> guys
> > that put together the VK4KW team and we have done heaps of work to get
> > results and are on constant improvement - there has been two years steady
> > improvement and at least another two years before we hit our straps..
> > The scores from 9M6AAC over the years say to me that your neck of the
> woods
> > is fine - you just need to make a station that works - just like everyone
> > else does..
> > Start with beverages on 160 70 and 40 and work from there - I am sure you
> > will be happy with the results
> >
> >
> > --- On Mon, 6/12/10, Charles Harpole <k4vud at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > From: Charles Harpole <k4vud at hotmail.com>
> > Subject: [CQ-Contest] a little more fairness?
> > To: "Contest Internet" <cq-contest at contesting.com>
> > Received: Monday, 6 December, 2010, 10:34 PM
> >
> >
> > A modest proposal....  Could the contesting community consider cutting
> some
> > slack to a neglected part of the contesting world, specifically CQ Zones
> 22,
> > 26, 27 and 28, South Asia area.  I suggest doubling the point count for
> > working stations in this area from outside the zones.
> >
> > The reason is that (1) most beams are from NA to EU or the reverse or are
> > on JA (these headings are a long way from S. Asia usually), (2) many very
> > high power stations clustered in EU tend to drown out S. Asia to all in
> EU,
> > (3) the start time of 0000Z gives very poor first hours to S. Asia
> stations
> > due to prop at those hours, and (5) there are just not as many one-hop
> > stations to work within these and near-by zones and (5) not many stations
> in
> > S. Asia do contests partly due to what is listed here.
> >
> > The playing field is just not flat, not nearly, and looks more like a
> > mountain between S. Asia and the large collections of contesters in EU
> and
> > NA.  So, I ask this be considered because it will also liven up contests
> and
> > add more challenges.  I will certainly encourage S. Asia stations to
> > participate more and longer.
> >
> > 73, Thanks, HS0ZCW
> >
> > Charles Harpole
> >
> > k4vud at hotmail.com
> >
> >
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> >
> >
> >
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