[CQ-Contest] Spots and Success in the WRTC - a little data for discussion

[Steve London]

A question that I have is...what were R32K, R31X, R36O, R34D, R37P, R39A and 
R39R doing differently that caused them to be infrequently picked up by a skimmer ?

On the suggestion of my teammate, N6TV, our CQ was "TEST R39M R39M". All 
characters were sent at the same speed - usually at 36 or 38 WPM. That seems to 
have resulted in the 6th highest skimmer capture rate.

73,
Steve, N2IC

Pete Smith wrote:
> The following table lists the contestants in WRTC by finish order and 
> callsign, and then shows the number of spots recorded in the Reverse 
> Beacon Network database.  Reverse beacons don't cheerlead or select 
> which stations to spot.  You can draw your own conclusions.  Perhaps 
> there is a statistician among us who can derive further enlightenment by 
> analyzing these numbers, together with others released by the organizers.
> 
> Call 	Place 	 Spots
> R32F 	1 	182
> R33A 	2 	109
> R33M 	3 	316
> R39D 	4 	172
> R34P 	5 	156
> R32K 	6 	0
> R32R 	7 	106
> R31X 	8 	21
> R37M 	9 	189
> R36C 	10 	166
> R33L 	11 	132
> R38F 	12 	232
> R33G 	13 	163
> R31U 	14 	62
> R34O 	15 	122
> R36Y 	16 	59
> R34W 	17 	197
> R39M 	18 	222
> R32C 	19 	115
> R37L 	20 	139
> R37Q 	21 	247
> R34C 	22 	184
> R36O 	23 	17
> R38O 	24 	116
> R31A 	25 	302
> R36F 	26 	41
> R38K 	27 	187
> R38X 	28 	79
> R31D 	29 	111
> R34D 	30 	14
> R32Z 	31 	252
> R32O 	32 	111
> R37A 	33 	184
> R32W 	34 	142
> R31N 	35 	140
> R36Z 	36 	100
> R38N 	37 	50
> R36K 	38 	91
> R38W 	39 	79
> R37P 	40 	10
> R39A 	41 	25
> R37U 	42 	191
> R34X 	43 	76
> R39R 	44 	12
> R34Z 	45 	133
> R33U 	46 	96
> R36W 	47 	152
> R33Q 	48 	85
> 
> 
> When I first saw this, I questioned how it was possible that a station 
> could finish sixth and yet not be spotted even once, but the scientist 
> on our team tells me it is not only possible, but statistically likely.  
> In any case, that's what the database says.
>