[CQ-Contest] Split operation in CQ WW CW

[Tod Olson]

Martin:

 I enjoyed your LCF discussion. As one of the creators of the Sprints, I
was pleased that you noted that one of our objectives as we designed the
contest was indeed working. The QSO/QSY rule received a LOT of complaints
when we announced the Sprint rules for the first Sprint contest long, long
ago. At this point it is no longer seems to be an issue.

I personally enjoy the 160 contests for the very reason you mention, the
skill entry level is pretty high. You can't get by with just being a high
speed CW or SSB whiz, you actually need to have a reasonably good station
and understand how to use it effectively. Even if you buy everything "off
the shelf" you can't just throw it together and expect to wipe out the
competition. 

Unskillful and thoughtless operating has been a part of Ham Radio since
the very beginning. The Old Man [H.P.Maxim, the original W1AW] created the
rettysnitch and the wouff-hong in response to what he called "Rotten QRM"
see => http://rettysnitch.org in 1917 and things have not improved in some
areas since that time in spite of those fearful weapons.

I guess we will simply have to look for ways to work around the challenges
during the contests and then seek therapeutic relief complaining on the
contest reflectors following the contest.

73, Tod, K0TO




-----Original Message-----
From: "Martin , LU5DX" <lu5dx at lucg.com.ar>
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2012 17:58:34 -0300
To: Radio K0HB <kzerohb at gmail.com>
Cc: "cq-contest at contesting.com" <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Split operation in CQ WW CW

>Hi Hans.
>Problem is... An amateur radio contests, are a massive concentration of
>lids in a pretty short period of time.
>
>Though there are codes of conduct that apply. It remains one of the most
>cahotic and anarchic ways of competition from end to end.
>
>It is not like a DXpedition. DXpeditions are active for five, seven, ten
>or
>fourteen days, resulting in what seems to be a lower LCF (Lids
>concentration factor) than during contests. But since the LCF is measured
>in Lids per Kilocycle effectively used during a given period of time,
>throughout 2012, there have been DXpeditions producing LCFs even higher
>than the best of contests altogether. The closer you get to the dxcc most
>wanted list the higher the LCF produced by a DXpedition is.
>
>Some contests tend to have an LCF higher than others. It depends on
>whether
>it is SSB, CW or RTTY, World Wide or Continental.
>
>The only contests with a very low LCF to my knowedge - there may be
>others- are: NA Sprint (CW/SSB/RTTY), The Stew Perry Top Band Challenge
>and
>probably the CQ and ARRL 160 M contests. The sprints because of his own
>beauty and nature (QSO/QSY) and Top band mostly because it is a place
>where
>the vast majority of lids can't do any harm. Only those who have achieved
>a
>considerable ammount of technical and operational knowledge can succed
>there.
>
>The rest is CHAOS! At least, that seems to be the tendency. In other
>words, if you need to work them fast, you have to spread them all over the
>spectrum ;-)
>
>This, in fact, is all done to help keep the sanity of the ham HF radio
>spectrum.
>
>Otherwise, Lids will start over-loading  their amps when they see it's
>taking longer than usual to work the mult and they will end up using
>even more bandwidth -than if they were working split-, because of the
>distorted modulation.
>
>In the end, it all depends on the money you have (the rigs, amps and
>antennas you can afford) and how much of an HF Spectrum Maffia capo you
>are
>when it comes fighting with others for a frequency or to be heard in a
>pile
>up.
>
>I guess the LCF can be lowered to a decent degree in the years to come
>using SDR recordings. Or proabaly it will just be another optimistic
>utopia, considering we are talking about enforcing the behavior of
>thousands of people at the same time spreaded across thousands of possible
>frequencies.
>
>Vy 73.
>
>Martin, LU5DX
>
>