[CQ-Contest] Leveling the Playing Field

[Jimk8mr at aol.com]

With the wonders of computerized scoring, the WorldWideWeb, and electronic  
publishing, there is no reason contest scores could not be computed via one 
or  more additional algorithms. Keep the existing system (at least for now) 
as the  "official" results, but re-compute results based on distance,  
latitude/planetary K-index, or whatever, and see what falls out from there. Some 
 mention of this was made in the original CAC correspondance.

My  observation is that distance is less important than the hours of shared 
daylight  or darkness to key areas. If you compare rates between stations 
in different  geographic areas on the Contest Log  Viewer/Analyzer

http://logqso.com/

it becomes real obvious, real quick. The guys in New  England really clean 
up as the high bands open to Europe in the morning, and to  a lesser extent 
when the low bands open in the evening.  They are running  up big numbers 
for an hour or two before, say, W8/W9. Once the band opens to  those areas, 
the rates become very similar.  Add less easily quantified  factors like 
getting first crack at good run frequencies, and it adds up to a  lot more 
difference than a linear ratio of distances between the two  areas.

While the same principle (less the first crack at a frequency  
consideration) works the other way to Asia/Pacific, there are far fewer  participants in 
that direction.

Adding a weighting factor based on hours  of mutual daylight/darkness 
between stations would provide an interesting  alternate scoring system. 
 
Let a thousand flowers bloom.


73  -  Jim   K8MR



In a message dated 6/23/2011 4:46:36 P.M. Eastern Daylight  Time, 
jamesdavidcain at gmail.com writes:

I think trying distance-based scoring in the ARRL DX Contest might be  
really fun, presuming that it would be used to assign points to each contact  
according to Great Circle distance and retaining the DXCC "Countries" List as  
multipliers. Please read carefully -- I said "trying." It would definitely 
give  me more reason to participate again next year and probably to spend 
more time in  the contest. 

I've been doing DX contests for 48 years, from Connecticut,  Indiana, 
Wisconsin, New Jersey, Mississippi, and from several Caribbean spots.  

I vote YES. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.