[CQ-Contest] How "off time" was calculated for CQWW

[kr2q at optimum.net]

Just FYI....

10 minutes of no QSO's = off

It was totally arbitrary and was not "my" decision.  I'm fine with 10 minutes (rate = 6/hour).

If you'd like to experiment, the logs are public.  Several years ago, somebody (I forget who),
did the same analysis by pulling in all the logs and assigning various criteria for the "off time"
and then coming up with "the iron men."  I'm sure changing to 15 minutes won't change
things much on a relativistic basis.  And, of course, changing to 5 minutes will result in even
fewer "iron men."

Since the number of entrants is growing every year, and since the current evaluation shows
that half are below 10 hours, I don't think having a 24 or 36 hour contest (or subcontest)
will make any difference at all in terms of "how many" entrants there are.  YMMV.

I might turn the radio on this weekend, so if KR2AA isn't active, I'll give you a shot at KR2.

de Doug KR2Q