[CQ-Contest] inequities in contesting and a proposal

[Michael Adams]

NN3W wrote

> So....what about scrambling things up a bit with a contest.  Find an empty
> weekend and have a 24 hour event that combines what we like about CQWW,
> IARU, WPX, and throw in some spice.

This idea brings two thoughts to mind.

First, is the obvious reaction: the contest calendar is plenty full as it is.  We probably don't need to antagonize anti-contesters any further by cramming another test in.  

However, after I get over that reaction...an alternative comes to mind.

Because of the irregular nature of the calendar, every year there are one or two odd weekends where, because of the difference of scheduling contests for the "fourth weekend" or the "last weekend" of the month, or because of the 1st being on a Sunday, there aren't any (or hardly any) contests scheduled.  This past weekend would be an example of such a weekend.

Every so often, on this reflector or elsewhere, ideas get floated about how to make this contest or that contest "better", possible innovations in scoring, etc.   Sometimes some of those ideas do get into the rules of a particular contest, but more often than not they evolve into the same-old never-ending debates.

What if, on these odd weekends, we held an experimental contest to try out some of these ideas?   Have it be a 24 hour contest (so that we don't eat up an entire weekend), with format, rules, scoring, exchanges, etc. varying somewhat from running to running.  These contests shouldn't be "kitchen sink" contests where everything is thrown in in an attempt to please everyone; instead I would see these as a chance to say (for example) "what would CQWW if we changed the scoring like so..."    Perhaps a half-dozen ideas  could be floated here, vetted by the software guys, a poll taken, and let the top 1-3 ideas drive the next running.

Don't worry about maintaining continuity of records; instead try one or two new things each running.   If they work, perhaps they're retained for the next irregular running...or perhaps not.

Potentially, the organizers of established, regular contests could use anything learned in the experiments to decide if they want to make changes to their events.

-- 
Michael Adams  N1EN
Poquonock, Connecticut  |  mda at n1en.org