[CQ-Contest] ARRL DX "Leveling, Handicapping, Equalizing"

Sat Jul 2 18:37:29 PDT 2011

That's a very good point Mike. The USA is just too big. Maybe it needs 
divided into different top ten zones.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Fatchett W0MU" <w0mu at w0mu.com>
To: <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 02, 2011 8:19 PM
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] ARRL DX "Leveling, Handicapping, Equalizing"

> There is no reasonable way to level the playing field.  Those of us in
> the West compare our scores with those close to us with similar paths.
> There is no way for a logging program to determine path, hops etc.
> There are unique paths and openings that occur in every contest and they
> are generally not country wide, at least in a country as large as the
> USA, Russia, China or Australia.
>
> The large expanse of some countries is the real issue.  Maybe the
> results and scores need to be adjusted accordingly.
>
> The other issue which drives this leveling discussion it the amount of
> competition coming from the USA.
>
> Those in the upper or lower latitudes have to deal with Aurora and
> disturbances that generally affect these areas longer and harder in a
> negative way vs those in the middle latitudes.
>
> Distance based scoring does little to really equalize the playing field
> in a DX contest where there many paths which the signals could be coming
> from.
>
> Life will never be fair and neither will radio contesting as there are
> way too many variables involved.
>
> Mike W0MU
>
> On 7/1/2011 5:24 PM, Tom W8JI wrote:
>> Any valid adjustment based on previous score data to level the field 
>> would
>> require operators and antennas to be the same. There is a total lack of
>> useful data to do anything based on previous scores, because stations and
>> operators are not equal. Even if they were equal, the data base is too
>> small.
>>
>> The only way to do anything meaningful to level would be propagation 
>> data,
>> but again that depends on stations working correctly. It is painfully
>> obvious that is lacking also, but it still world be far better than 
>> looking
>> at previous scores.
>>
>> If we just want to allow underdogs a better chance to win, with no regard 
>> to
>> creating equal chances, then a score based adjustment would work just 
>> fine.
>> The old bracket race or golf handicap type of system applied to Ham 
>> radio.
>>
>> 73 Tom
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From:<w1md at cfl.rr.com>
>> To:<cq-contest at contesting.com>
>> Sent: Friday, July 01, 2011 10:25 AM
>> Subject: [CQ-Contest] ARRL DX "Leveling, Handicapping, Equalizing"
>>
>>
>>> So...the data is there...40+ years of it. Seems that it would be a 
>>> fairly
>>> easy and straightforward process to use the results of previous years to
>>> come up with a "leveling, handicapping, equalizing" factor that would 
>>> take
>>> into account the vast majority of factors...including Distance,
>>> Propagation, and those years where there were 'anomalies' that allowed a
>>> station outside of W1-3 and VE1-3 to get into the top ten.
>>>
>>> Sorry about the formatting...this is just 9 years of data (2002-2010) 
>>> for
>>> the SOHP category.
>>>
>>> 9 out of 90 stations came from areas other than W1-3 or VE1-3 or roughly
>>> 10%
>>> IN =3
>>> VA = 2
>>> CO = 1
>>> STX = 1
>>> WCF = 1
>>> NM = 1
>>>
>>>
>>> 1 K5ZD (W4PA, op) 6,173,244 4,454 462 WMA 1 1 KT1V (NT1N, op) 6,226,974
>>> 4,094 507 NH 1 1 K5ZD (W4PA, op) 6,588,960 4,240 518 WMA 1
>>> 2 K1DG 5,629,746 4,027 466 NH 1 2 KQ2M 5,675,454 4,086 463 CT 1 2 N2NT
>>> 6,343,305 4,187 505 NNJ 2
>>> 3 AA1K 5,172,453 4,019 429 DE 3 3 VY2ZM (K1ZM, op) 5,490,114 3,902 469 
>>> MAR
>>> 3 K3CR (LZ4AX, op) 5,060,160 3,514 480 WPA 3
>>> 4 W9RE 5,063,502 3,898 433 IN 9 4 K1TO 5,480,952 4,042 452 WCF 4 4 KT1V
>>> 4,946,856 3,782 436 NH 1
>>> 5 K1ZZ 5,045,175 3,957 425 CT 1 5 K5ZD (W4PA, op) 5,458,815 4,089 445 
>>> WMA
>>> 1 5 K3ZO 4,640,286 3,298 469 MDC 3
>>> 6 N2IC 4,902,660 3,891 420 CO 0 6 N2NT 4,914,630 3,766 435 NNJ 2 6 W1WEF
>>> 4,569,642 3,234 471 CT 1
>>> 7 W1WEF 4,854,462 3,686 439 CT 1 7 AA1K 4,461,795 3,419 435 DE 3 7 N2LT
>>> 4,361,880 3,260 446 NNJ 2
>>> 8 K2UA 4,789,530 3,942 405 WNY 2 8 K3ZO 4,357,794 3,347 434 MDC 3 8 WC1M
>>> 4,170,264 3,374 412 NH 1
>>> 9 K5GN 4,628,520 3,588 430 STX 5 9 K2UA 4,212,600 3,304 425 WNY 2 9 KQ2M
>>> 4,155,624 3,267 424 CT 1
>>> 10 K3CR (LZ4AX, op) 4,446,192 3,376 439 WPA 3 10 VY2TT 4,043,034 3,186 
>>> 423
>>> MAR 10 K1RM 4,120,200 3,052 450 CT 1
>>> 2,002 2,003 2,004
>>>
>>>
>>> 1 VY2ZM (K1ZM, op) 5,382,234 3,978 451 MAR 1 N9RV 4,714,356 3,596 437 IN 
>>> 9
>>> 1 VY2PA 4,863,075 3,925 413 MAR
>>> 2 KQ2M 4,806,459 3,633 441 CT 1 2 N2NT 4,635,210 3,670 421 NNJ 2 2 N2NT
>>> 4,026,048 3,226 416 NNJ 2
>>> 3 N2NT 4,660,608 3,664 424 NNJ 2 3 K3CR (LZ4AX, op) 4,462,128 3,443 432
>>> WPA 3 3 K3CR (LZ4AX, op) 3,445,200 2,900 396 WPA 3
>>> 4 K3CR (LZ4AX, op) 4,366,941 3,331 437 WPA 3 4 AA1K 4,035,045 3,241 415 
>>> DE
>>> 3 4 AA1K 3,315,510 2,805 394 DE 3
>>> 5 AA1K 4,190,670 3,366 415 DE 3 5 VE3DZ 3,209,856 2,572 416 ON 5 K1ZZ
>>> 3,128,625 2,781 375 CT 1
>>> 6 K1ZZ 3,850,344 3,027 424 CT 1 6 VY2TT (K6LA, op) 3,198,555 2,755 387 
>>> MAR
>>> 6 VY2TT 3,042,660 2,669 380 MAR
>>> 7 K5ZD 3,782,652 3,121 404 WMA 1 7 W4RX (K0DQ, op) 3,175,326 2,607 406 
>>> VA
>>> 4 7 VC3O (VE3AT, op) 2,793,168 2,282 408 ON
>>> 8 W3GRF (K0DQ, op) 3,764,988 2,946 426 VA 4 8 K3ZO 3,165,855 2,741 385 
>>> MDC
>>> 3 8 WC1M 2,766,510 2,605 354 NH 1
>>> 9 N2LT 3,687,420 3,020 407 NNJ 2 9 VC3A (VE3AT, op) 3,107,160 2,520 411 
>>> ON
>>> 9 VE3DZ 2,653,992 2,234 396 ON
>>> 10 WC1M 3,634,536 3,044 398 NH 1 10 K1ZZ 3,103,290 2,523 410 CT 1 10 
>>> N2LT
>>> 2,642,400 2,400 367 NNJ 2
>>> 2,005 2,006 2,007
>>>
>>>
>>> 1 K1KI 3,593,274 3,103 386 CT 1 1 VY2ZM (K0DQ, op) 4,892,940 4,006 410 
>>> MAR
>>> 1 VY2ZM 5,549,292 4,656 399 MAR
>>> 2 K3CR (LZ4AX, op) 3,557,358 3,137 378 WPA 3 2 NN3W (@ N3HBX) 4,066,260
>>> 3,392 404 MDC 3 2 K3CR (LZ4AX, op) 5,514,120 4,362 424 WPA 3
>>> 3 K1ZM 3,501,762 3,121 374 EMA 1 3 K3CR (LZ4AX, op) 3,868,128 3,186 407
>>> WPA 3 3 VY2TT 5,218,695 4,557 387 MAR
>>> 4 N2NT 3,381,240 2,966 380 NNJ 2 4 K5ZD (W1UE, op) 3,717,186 3,361 374 
>>> WMA
>>> 1 4 K1RX 4,984,317 4,474 377 NH 1
>>> 5 AA1K 2,985,831 2,757 361 DE 3 5 AA1K 3,637,740 3,235 380 DE 3 5 N2IC
>>> 4,757,745 3,796 419 NM 5
>>> 6 K1ZZ 2,851,785 2,495 381 CT 1 6 K1ZZ 3,634,962 3,150 386 CT 1 6 K1ZZ
>>> 4,702,365 3,785 415 CT 1
>>> 7 VC3E (VE3AT, op) 2,802,618 2,639 354 ON 7 WC1M 3,192,783 3,158 341 NH 
>>> 1
>>> 7 K5ZD 4,586,838 3,972 386 WMA 1
>>> 8 WC1M 2,515,032 2,687 312 NH 1 8 VY2TT (K6LA, op) 3,092,202 3,026 346 
>>> MAR
>>> 8 W9RE 4,552,119 3,909 393 IN 9
>>> 9 N2LT 2,277,330 2,266 335 NNJ 2 9 N2LT 2,933,856 2,692 366 NNJ 2 9 WC1M
>>> 4,413,225 4,108 361 NH 1
>>> 10 K3ZO 2,209,920 2,302 320 MDC 3 10 W1WEF 2,684,079 2,720 331 CT 1 10
>>> VX3AT (VE3AT, op) 4,398,198 3,639 406 ON
>>> 2,008 2,009 2,010
>>>
>>>
>>> W1MD
>>>
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