[CQ-Contest] Year first licensed distribution from CW SS

[Michael Adams]

A couple of thoughts:

1.  Are the lack of more recent check digits really symptomatic of demographics, or are they symptomatic of some checks being more fun to send than others?

For example, I was first licensed in 2010.  I don't use 10 as my check; there's only so many times I can send/listen to 9 consecutive dah's.  (I wouldn't be a good op to run while signing W100AW....)

I don't see it so much in the quoted stats earlier in this thread, but in my own log, I think I saw an underrepresentation of 0's and 1's in the population of check digits.  Let's see how badly this gets mangled by the listserv:

      	    00	    01	    02	    03	    04	    05	    06	    07	    08	    09	 % TOT
    10	      	      	      	      	      	     0	     0	     0	     0	     0	  0.0%
    20	     0	     0	     1	     0	     0	     0	     0	     1	     0	     0	  0.4%
    30	     0	     0	     0	     0	     0	     0	     0	     0	     0	     0	  0.0%
    40	     0	     0	     0	     0	     1	     0	     0	     1	     2	     0	  0.9%
    50	     1	     2	     7	     5	     8	    18	    10	    17	    18	    15	 22.5%
    60	    17	    10	    20	    19	    14	    16	     9	    15	    11	    19	 33.4%
    70	     7	     9	    16	    10	    11	    12	    21	    14	    15	    15	 29.0%
    80	     5	     2	     2	     2	     2	     1	     8	     2	     3	     2	  6.5%
    90	     1	     3	     2	     2	     0	     1	     2	     2	     2	     2	  3.8%
    00	     2	     0	     2	     0	     2	     3	     0	     1	     0	     0	  2.2%
    10	     2	     0	     2	     0	     2	      	      	      	      	      	  1.3%
 % TOT	  7.8%	  5.8%	 11.6%	  8.5%	  8.9%	 11.4%	 11.1%	 11.8%	 11.4%	 11.8%	

That should be a tally of the various checks in my SS log from this weekend, shown as a 10×11 matrix, with a % distribution on the bottom and right-hand side.

If the checks were real years first licensed, I'd expect there to be a lot less variation in the share of x1's vs. the share of x9's.  True, there'd probably still be some difference because of the war years, but even ignoring the 40's, there are fewer x1's than any other year in a given decade.

2.  To the extent that at least some of the checks are right...or are at least in the right decade....could it be that given the number of contests at this time of year, could it be that younger hams might be underrepresented because of other demands on their time?  I know, for example, between work, honey-do's, fall antenna maintenance, and contests....there are only a couple of tests that I can find the time for an all-out effort.  Perhaps more seasoned contesters have more flexible schedules, thereby making them more likely to play in sweepstakes, all other things being equal.

It might be interesting to compare the chart above to one generated from SSSSB (which I'll likely mostly sit out, if the weather is decent), or one implied from the All-Asia contests.

-- 
Michael Adams | N1EN | mda at n1en.org

-----Original Message-----
From: CQ-Contest [mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Radio K0HB
Sent: Monday, 3 November, 2014 12:37
To: Tim Shoppa; cq-contest at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Year first licensed distribution from CW SS

Houston, we have a problem!

In fishing, we pay a lot of attention to the "year class" of the lake surveys conducted by the DNR.

Missing/low year class recruitment with the profile seen below would raise a question of survivable population.

73, de Hans, K0HB