[CQ-Contest] How many hours do SOAB entrants actually operate?

[somata90924 at mypacks.net]

Just how many catagories do we want?  There are too many now.  Lets make it a Low Band /High band entry-- 160,80,40, (Lowband)....then let's make that assisted, non assisted, then lets make that LP/HP, then lets make that rookie or non rookie, now do they use a beverage or not?.... Non Beverage or no beverage,,,JUST how many catagories does one need?

Joe, w6vnr

-----Original Message-----
>From: David Gilbert <xdavid at cis-broadband.com>
>Sent: Mar 31, 2013 2:18 PM
>To: cq-contest at contesting.com
>Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] How many hours do SOAB entrants actually operate?
>
>
>Why would all the 24 hour guys work the first 24 hours of the contest?  
>That doesn't make any sense at all.   Much more likely is that they 
>would try to pick hours that optimized propagation for contacts and 
>multipliers, and that would be different for every operator because of 
>different QTHs ... especially when you take into account different band 
>preferences.
>
>It seems to me that a 24 hour category would essentially replace 
>potentially unhealthy (fatigue, circulation, cycle disruption, etc) 
>butt-in-the-chair boredom with additional degrees of freedom from a 
>strategy point of view.  Particpants would have to choose their hours 
>carefully to maximize rate and multipliers taking into account both 
>propagation and prime time hours on the other end (which don't 
>necessarily overlap depending upon the band).  They'd have the 
>opportunity to tailor their hours to wring the most out of the 
>capabilities of their antennas (not everyone has cannons on every band), 
>and they'd have the opportunity to work in sleep periods that would 
>allow them to chase key multipliers during hours they might normally not 
>operate.
>
>It seems to me that a 48 hour contest where fully 90% of the 
>participants operate less than half that time is not really a 48 hour 
>contest anyway.  In any case, for the great majority it isn't a test of 
>skill ... it's a test of endurance.  Those are two radically different 
>things.  Adding a 24 hour category would simply recognize that fact, and 
>it would only be necessary to add it for SOAB and SOAB(A) since almost 
>by definition the single-band and multi-op entries don't really need it.
>
>Based upon the data I could easily foresee that the 24 hour categories 
>would become the most popular by far .... so how does that become a bad 
>idea??
>
>73,
>Dave   AB7E
>
>
>
>On 3/30/2013 6:35 PM, Tom Osborne wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> But, what if all the 24 hour guys operate the first 24 and then quit?  That
>> would make for a boring weekend for the 48 hour guys.  73
>> Tom W7WHY
>>
>>
>>
>
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