[CQ-Contest] SS Sundays

[Jimk8mr at aol.com]

Let's get back to the simple suggestion most recently made by K2AV (with my 
 enthusiastic second):
 
Simply give people the reasonable opportunity to use a second (or more)  
call later in the contest, with minimal limits to prevent manufactured contact 
 abuse (A problem more in theory than in practice. See the CQ contests  
where multiple calls are permitted). Forbidding the use of a previous call 
after  use of a new one begins would be sufficient.
 
No need to establish new categories to do so.  Some side bet type of  
action without involving the ARRL Contest Desk is fine, but not necessary. I've  
had a competition (pretty much with myself) over the years to see if the sum 
of  my four scores (from separate physical locations) will beat the score 
of the  overall high scorer. Some years I win, some years I don't. 
 
SS, especially the CW SS, is presented as an endurance contest where one  
struggles to scrape out every last possible qso on Sunday. I consider this a  
bug, not a feature, of SS. But the contest is still sufficiently popular 
that  being a new station in the later hours makes it into a rate contest. 
That  combined with the challenge of working a clean sweep (or close to it) in 
a  relatively few hours makes Sunday SS with a fresh call a lot of fun.
 
All this will take is for the ARRL to drop General Rules 3.3 and 3.5.
 
 
73  -  Jim   K8MR
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 2/10/2013 1:50:52 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
n4zr at contesting.com writes:

No, but  there *might* be a correlation if limited-time competition 
categories were  offered, perhaps focused on Sunday operating periods.  A 
"6-hour  Sunday" class might add some activity in the dead zone, 
particularly as  the age of SS participants continues to rise.

73, Pete  N4ZR
 
 


On  2/9/2013 8:59 PM, W0MU Mike Fatchett wrote:
> We seemed to have gotten  well off the original topic which was a 
> substantial drop in  participation in the contest and what things we 
> could do to get more  people to participate.
>
> Sunday afternoon, lack of rate was  mentioned as reason that 
> discouraged some.
>
> I am not  sure if there is any correlation between changing the length 
> of the  contest  and increasing participation.
>
> Mike  W0MU
>



> On  2/9/2013 9:14 AM, Zack Widup wrote:
>> If you don't want to operate  during the full length of the contest,
>> what does it matter what  the actual length of the contest is? If you
>> only want to operate  on Saturday, then do just that, etc.
>>
 


>> If you are in it mostly for fun (like I usually am),  then you operate
>> when you wish. If you want to be competitive,  you'd do whatever it
>> takes to be competitive if that means  operating the maximum time
>> allowed by the  rules.
>>
>> 73, Zack  W9SZ
>>
>>