[CQ-Contest] ARRL is not my favourite

[Doug Turnbull]

Gentlemen,

      The ARRL contest has some drawbacks for those outside the USA.    You
can only work USA and Canada and I do this happily as I am originally from W
land but there are long periods when propagation is not great so the Q rates
are not high and the contest less interesting.    I would suggest that the
fact that DX has to work the USA means that many DX stations give the ARRL
DX contest a miss.     

        This is the nature of the contest.   Sweepstakes is strictly a North
American contest yet remain popular.   The French REF contest allows DX
stations to participate but the scoring system discourages such operators.
I suppose the ARRL DX contest is just different as all contests are.     For
me the CQ WW contests are number one followed closely by CQ WPX Contests.
For Top Band the CQ Stew Perry and CQ WW 160M contests are excellent.    The
ARRL does a great job with its 10M and 160M contests.

 

       I am a pretty happy camper and just accept that there are differences
between contests.   For a low power station in the USA or Canada, I would
imagine it is fun to have the rest of the world begging for a QSO.     As
for VE5, you may be isolated but you are very much wanted.    Of course
location affects the scores and so score comparisons are difficult.

 

                                          73 Doug EI2CN