[CQ-Contest] ZEROLAND QSO PARTY

[Joe]

On 11/14/2010 8:28 AM, ZEROLAND QSO PARTY wrote: IE The Missouri
> The Missouri QSO party this year had less than 100 entries.. DISMAL, and its on its own
> weekend. So shoving the ZQP out on a inactive date wont equal it's success,
> just isolate it like the Iowa QSO party that also had less than 90
> participates last year. Hopefully more this year.
This to me brings up the question,

"What Makes A Good Contest A Good Contest"?

What makes one more popular than another?

As an example take the above described Iowa QSO Party,  and compare it 
to it's neighbor the Wisconsin QSO party.

The contests are almost identical.

The exchange is the same.

The time to operate is almost the same,  WI = 7 hours  vs  IA = 9 hours.

But why did IOWA have less than 90 participate, when Wisconsin had 304 
send in logs. The Logs show 46,784 QSO's were made in the 304 logs.

The top finishers had QSO rates exceeding 100 Q's a hour average!  That 
is awesome for a little State QSO party.

But if the only difference in these two contests is one is 2 hours 
longer,, then why such a difference in the level of participation?

Joe WB9SBD