[CQ-Contest] encourgaing more entrants in CQWW (was CHECK LOGS)

[Ron Notarius W3WN]

Any time that there is a rule change, or a category addition or deletion, or
a rescheduling, there will be -- always! -- unintended consequences.

That should not be, in and of itself, a reason to avoid change.

So, in this specific situation:

If you're going to have a limited-time category (such as 12 hour or 24 hour
only), then specify from the outset if it is to be:

a) Cumulative of xx hours throughout the entire 48 hour contest timeframe.
b) Consecutive of xx hours starting from any given point in time; in other
words, once you start, you can only continue for xx hours
c)  Consecutive of xx hours, during a specified period.  First 12 or 24
hours, or second, and so forth.

If a contestant exceeds xx hours, whatever xx is, then he or she gets no
points and no multipliers.  And IMHO, whenever xx is reached, that is the
cutoff.  You don't get to pick and choose.

Will some ops drop down from the full 48 hours to the lesser timeframe(s)?
Certainly.  There are many situations where this would be justified.  I can
personally think of one, since CQ WPX SSB weekend usually falls on or near
my wife's birthday.  You think I'm going to skip taking her out to dinner
for the sake of a few hours of contesting?  (Rhetorical question, please
don't answer).  So what?

I think this will be offset by those ops who currently operate only for a
few hours here or there, who would be more willing to operate a few more
hours to fill in a 12 or 24 hour category.  Think not?  Well, it's certainly
an incentive when you actually have a reasonable chance at "winning" a
category, or at least be competitive in it, as opposed to having little or
no chance before you even turn the radio on.

IMHO.  YMMV.  VWPBL(STn).

73, ron w3wn

-----Original Message-----
From: cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Randy Thompson K5ZD
Sent: Friday, November 25, 2011 9:49 AM
To: cq-contest at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] encourgaing more entrants in CQWW (was CHECK LOGS)

I believe there is a place for time limited categories in contesting.  It
would increase participation and activity among some people if they had an
outlet for their competitive spirit even though they could not devote the
full weekend to a contest.

However, there is a very real danger of unintended consequences.  Whatever
time limit is set, there will be some people who operate more to maximize
their time under the limit.  There will be other people who operate less
because they would prefer to compete within the time limit.  It is uncertain
whether this would result in a net gain or net loss of total QSOs, but it
seems counterproductive to have any rule encourages less activity.  (Yes,
there are contests with off time requirements that do just that, but they
apply to everyone.)

If we had a time limited category, it would tend to drive activity to the
already high activity periods.  It would tend to discourage activity in the
slow times.  Not helpful.

No good answer.  Just pointing out the challenge of creating a competition
around a limit.

Randy, K5ZD