[CQ-Contest] Comments / FAQs on WRTC2018 qualification rules

[Christian Janssen]

The current qualification rules are the result of long and intensive 
discussions and a unanimous decision of the WRTC2018 Organizing 
Committee. We are most grateful for the discussions in various mailing 
lists and the useful contributions we have received from them.

The following typos in the current rules (November 29, 2014) have been 
corrected in the final rules (available on http://www.wrtc2018.de):

- VE9 added to NA #7
- EU #1 changed from 5 to 4 teams
- EU #3 changed from 4 to 5 teams

The following FAQ’s will possibly help to answer remaining questions 
about the qualification rules:

Q: Why are Assisted, Non-Assisted, Single Band and Single Mode in the 
same category?
A: The main reason is to simplify the rules and to promote the 
competition by concentrating operators in only few categories. We do not 
intend to rate down the skills known from the good old times, nor do we 
plan to include the use of the DX-Cluster in the WRTC2018. Meanwhile 
using assisted technologies has become a facet of contesting. A 
contester these days should also be able to use them wisely. There have 
been a number of changes in the past that are common today.

Q: Why has the period of qualification been reduced from 2.5 to 2 years 
while maintaining 12 qualifying events?
A: In WRTC2014 a great number of participants suggested to shorten the 
qualification period. By this there is sufficient time to form teams 
during 2017 who can prepare their WRTC-setups. If we reduced the 
qualifying events to less then 12 in two years, chances would be high to 
get more tie scores and additional contest scores would have to be shown 
to break the tie.

Q: Why this choice of contests and their weighing?
A: After careful consideration the committee has come to the result 
published in the WRTC2018 rules.

Q: Why do not have all WRTC’s the same qualification rules?
A: The WRTC Sanctioning Committee gives WRTC organizers the right to 
amend qualification rules according to experiences from previous WRTC 
events.

Q: Why has the weighting of Multi-OP categories been reduced so much?
A: We are of the opinion that an operator’s skill cannot be assessed 
from the result of an MS-team of 10 or an MM-team of 20 operators, but 
that it is mirrored best in the single operator category. MS, M2 and MM 
operations are very different from the team-of-two operation in a 
WRTC-event.

Q: According to which principles have the selection areas been formed?
A: They have been formed according to geographical regions with more or 
less similar propagation.