[CQ-Contest] Club/Group competition 275 km radius in CQ

Fri Apr 8 15:01:44 PDT 2011

Wow. I'm almost salivating at this one. Consider the effect of a  
combined NCCC and SCCC in the world of contesting, along with the  
reduction of PVRC, SMC and YCCC to state-only clubs. I don't believe  
anyone could compete with us (they almost can't now).

The circle is meant to allow parity between the east coast clubs,  
where the states are much smaller, and us west coast guys. If the  
limit were to be on state boundaries, certainly there would basically  
be no competition. This would have more affect on balancing  
international contests where the east coasters have the advantage of  
being a direct shot into country-rich EU. But with so many stations in  
California, we would still no doubt put up a very good fight,  
especially if the competitors are the smaller individual east-coast  
states.

Competitions that allow our members to participate from anywhere allow  
us to compete in todays contests very well. It is a lot of fun to have  
our members super-high Caribbean scores light up the club competition  
in a contest. Perhaps there is merit to allowing folks participate  
from anywhere. Of course it could also lead to elitist clubs made up  
of only the best contesters. Rules that would discourage "elite-only"  
clubs would need to be considered to enhance both competition and the  
growth of local clubs. I strongly believe that we are seeing excellent  
growth in the contest community because of the existence of the  
contest clubs. The emergence of new state-wide (in many cases) contest  
clubs has been a very good thing in our hobby, and has done a lot to  
contribute to our overall growth. Growth means new contesters, whom  
our top contesters need to mentor to give them new competition!

I _would_ like to see the circle open up a bit, though. There are  
parts of the state of California that are within the NCCC area where  
members are not allowed to contribute to club scores. This is very  
similar to the Arizona situation. It is a shame that these folks  
cannot contribute to our score. In many cases they live literally a  
few hundred feet outside the club circle. Like our friends in AZ, I  
would really like to see them brought into our competition. It not  
only enhances the score, but camaraderie within the club as these  
contesters feel like they really are first-class members.

73!

Jack Brindle, W6FB
President, Northern California Contest Club

On Apr 8, 2011, at 10:09 AM, bobk8ia at aol.com wrote:

> As one who was directly involved in the recent (June 2009) formation  
> of the
> Arizona Outlaws Contest Club, I believe its time for me to weigh in.
>
> Essentially we are in the same boat as VE3CX mentions re Ontario. His
> comments are below. Also included are LU5DX's original email.
>
> Arizona, in land area, is one of the largest U.S. States. At about   
> 114K
> square miles (295 sq km), we rank 5th in the continental USA. Only  
> TX, CA,  MT
> and NM are larger (and AK of course). To put this in a "east coast
> perspective", we are larger than the combined land areas of MA, VT,  
> NH, NJ, CT,
> DE, RI plus(!) NY.
>
> Or, from another slant, AZ is larger than NY+ PA or NY + IL.
>
> I could go on and on with scenarios but my point is, AZ has a lot of  
> land
> area and only a minor league "population center" as far as  
> contesting goes.
> Phoenix area has some concentrated activity, Tucson a bit too, but
> onlyspotty  activity throughout the remainder of the state. Frankly,  
> the 275km CQ
> Circle  rule doesn't satisfy us at all.
>
> When we started the Arizona Outlaws Contest Club, it was clear that,
> because of the wide area of our membership, we would have to  
> eliminate some
> members no matter how the circle was drawn. 275km just isn't enough  
> to encompass
> the state. As of now, there are 8 members, in the northern part of our
> state,  who fall outside our circle. Of these 8, four are active  
> contesters.
>
> Anyhow, I just wanted to communicate the perspective of a western US  
> based
> contest club. The present circle requirement is brutal to serving our
> members. I  am certain we are not alone.
>
>
>
> 73, Bob K8IA,  President
> Arizona Outlaws Contest Club
> Club Call; N7AT
> Website: _www.arizonaoutlaws.net_ (http://www.arizonaoutlaws.net/)
>
>
>
>
>
> -----------------
>
> Date: Thu, 7 Apr 2011 21:43:36 -0400
> From: Tom Haavisto  <kamham69 at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Club/Group competition  275 km radius in CQ
> Contest (petition for change).
> To: Joe  <nss at mwt.net>
> Cc: cq-contest at contesting.com
> Message-ID:  <BANLkTinn76ig9AdcMF=5LL0BU5=gt1WSKg at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type:  text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> Hi Joe
>
> In your part of the world,  this is probably true.  However, where I
> live, there is myself and  another active contester.  The rest of the
> contest club we belong to is  about 1,000 miles away, yet we all live
> in the province of Ontario.  For  ARRL contests where they use ARRL
> sections, our scores are included as part  of the club total.  In
> contests where the circle is used, we don't get  added in.  The same
> could be said for all Canadian provinces, and a  number of U.S. states
> as well.
>
> This is just an example - many parts of  the world also fall into
> similar type issues of widely dispersed  individuals.  They all  
> share a
> common interest, and are part of one  club, and meet whenever they  
> can.
> At the same time, we also need some type of  limits so we don't end up
> with a small number of "super clubs", which defeats  the idea that the
> circle was meant to fix.
>
>
> Tom - VE3CX
>
> On 4/6/2011 4:16 PM, Martin Monsalvo, LU5DX wrote:
>> Hi  guys.
>>
>> We started a petition to ask the organizers of CQ Contest  to  
>> review the
> 275
>> Km radius rule (Club/Group) competition.
>> We  have been allowed by the organizers to submit our contest  
>> scores to
> our
>> clubs/groups for eleven years now, but we really feel it is time  
>> for a
>> change.
>>
>> This rule was originally written back in 1948 when these   
>> competitions
>> started and certainly the wording took into account the  situation  
>> of the
> US
>> based Clubs.
>>
>> There are countries  outside USA and Europe where the territory is  
>> really
>> vast and the ham  population is very little. Our members feel  
>> encouraged
> to
>> enter contests  even if it is ocassionally if they are allowed to  
>> submit
>> their scores to  our Club/Groups, and we really believe that being  
>> these
>> competitions  world wide events, the situation of other regions  
>> needs to
> be
>> considered.
>>
>> There are several options e.g.:
>> Remove the  geographic limitation completely, thus, allowing  
>> members of
> each
>> Club to  submit their scores to their club, no matter if they have  
>> moved
>> temporarily or permanently.
>> Keep this geographic limitation as it is for  the US and Western  
>> Europe
>> countries and remove it for the rest of the  world, and so on.
>>
>> If you feel like signing the petition you can  do so at:
>> http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/275km/
>>
>> Thanks in advance for getting involved.
>>
>>
>> Regards!
>>
>>
>
>
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