[CQ-Contest] Level Playing Field - my 2 cents

[Tom W8JI]

This is how well thought out this has been. W9RE is around 300 miles closer 
to Germany than I am. I have vastly better propagation, but would get an 
edge over Mike.

Why would anyone want that?

The path direction and what is in that path, like the magnetic poles, is 
more important than the raw distance. There certainly are case where 
distance matters, but K3LR is about the same distance as northern W0 land 
from the middle of Europe, and there is no comparison at all in propagation.

I think the real goal here is to diminish the advantage of the east coast's 
(I hardly call WPa east coast) better PATH to Europe.

I'm not sure how to compensate for better paths in scoring, or if we should. 
If we do it by distance, we might as well add a multiplier for being in the 
south. The poor saps way up north and in the midwest are going to get 
stiffed by a distance penalty, and they have it a whole lot tougher than 
anyone else.


> Approximate distances to Germany:
>
> Ma     3800
> WPa (K3LR)  4150
> Mn        4400
> Wi        4400
> IL        4500
> Mid GA 4700