[CQ-Contest] Flashback - Is It Time?

[Pete Smith N4ZR]

Ten years ago, VE5ZX, N2MG and I made a modest proposal - and were 
summarily shot down by the CQWW Contest Committee.  What follows was 
written then, so there are a few anachronisms - for example, CQWW logs 
are now public.  But I think the basic idea remains sound, so I'm 
putting it out for comment from the community.  Is this an idea whose 
time has finally come?

Announcing the 24-Hour DX Contest Challenge

Have you ever felt caught in-between -- wanting to compete seriously in 
a contest with a 48-hour time period but unable or unwilling to go that 
hard, that long?Do family obligations collide with your desire to be 
competitive in a major DX contest?Do you feel, where you live, that the 
schedule of the major DX contests forces you to be late to work on 
Monday morning, or to start the contest well after midnight on Friday?

Well, now there's an alternative.The first-ever 24-Hour DX Contest 
Challenge will be held to coincide with the 2003 CQ Word Wide DX Phone 
and CW Contests. The basic idea of the 24-Hour challenge is simple -- to 
provide a competitive category for operators who are not able or willing 
to operate the full 48-hour period.You choose the 24 hours out of a 
48-hour contest that you want to operate, and compete with operators in 
your own country or around the world who make similar choices.Match your 
knowledge of propagation and operating patterns with others by choosing 
the optimum 24 hours, and may the best operator win!

In February [2003], a survey appeared on www.contesting.com, asking 
whether institution of a 24-hour category in DX contests would result in 
operators increasing or decreasing their operating time, or would result 
in no change.Almost 500 votes were cast -- 42 percent said they would 
operate more, while only 12 percent said they would operate less; 46 
percent said they would not be affected.

These survey results demonstrate that instituting a 24-Hour Challenge 
would not hurt activity in the established contest, and would probably 
help.Accordingly, the first test of the 24-Hour Challenge will take 
place in conjunction with the CQWW DX Contests this fall.Plaques for the 
top single-op unassisted station in each mode will be awarded, at a 
minimum, and we are looking for sponsors for additional 
plaques.Certificates for top scorers by country will also be awarded.We 
are shamelessly copying the Stew Perry Top Band Distance Challenge, in 
offering to award a plaque for any category that someone is willing to 
sponsor.Contact N4ZR if you would like to sponsor a plaque for a 
particular locality or category.

To qualify for the 24-hour Challenge, your log must contain no more than 
24 hours total operating time, comprising no more than 6 operating 
periods, with each off-time being no less than 30 minutes.Entry is 
simple -- once your Cabrillo-format log has been accepted by the CQWW 
Contest Committee, just send us the same log file.We will process the 
log to make sure it meets the time criteria, and publish a list of 
qualifying logs received on a dedicated web site that will be 
established for that purpose.Actual log content will be maintained in 
confidence.When CQ publishes the scores, we will post plaque winners and 
all standings on the web site, based on CQ's final scores.We will also 
publish our own write-up of the results of the 24-Hour Challenge, 
hopefully capturing all the excitement of this first-ever event.

Further details, including the establishment of a web page dedicated to 
the 24-Hour challenge and any specific rule provisions that are 
developed between now and the 2003 [sic] CQWW contests will be the 
subjects of later announcements.Stay tuned!"


What think, folks?

73, Pete N4ZR
Check out the Reverse Beacon Network at
http://reversebeacon.net,
blog at reversebeacon.blogspot.com.
For spots, please go to your favorite
ARC V6 or VE7CC DX cluster node.

On 4/1/2013 9:02 PM, Ward Silver wrote:
> By publishing the number of hours worked with the score, using 
> whatever time-on calculation the log-checkers feel is appropriate for 
> that contest, it would be straightforward for an interested 
> third-party to calculate score/hr statistics.
>
> Public, validated logs could also be parsed for all sorts of 
> time-related stats:
> - best first 24 hour score
> - best second 24 hour score
> - best N hour score
> - fastest to N points
> and so on.  It would be the equivalent of baseball's sabermetrics - 
> what is the analog of "slugging percentage"?
>
> If the data was there and someone cared about the calculation, it 
> would probably be performed.  We might find an interesting way to 
> compete that doesn't require a new formal category.  Or we might 
> decide that what we already have is good enough and that more 
> categories don't really change things.  Nevertheless, the impact on 
> the contest sponsors, who have very limited resources, would be minimal.
>
> 73, Ward N0AX
>
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