[CQ-Contest] NA Sprint SSB Activity?

[K8MR via CQ-Contest]

Something I would suggest considering:
 
Rather that place the SSB Sprint on a fixed calendar date (second Saturdays 
 of February and September), run it on weekends that by virtue of calendar  
oddities do not have other major contests at the same time.
 
In 2014 this would have included such dates as Saturday evening May 31,  
when the weekend was in two different months; and November 8 or 22, the  
second or fourth weekend of a month that has five full weekends (with major  
contests on the first, third and last weekends).
 
Some prime dates in 2015 would include January 31 (a month splitting  
weekend) that has only the UBA SSB DX contest listed on WA7BNM; or in May,  
August, or October,  which have five full weekends this year.
 
The low activity in the last Sprint was for a lot more reasons than  
competition with the WAE SSB, the ARRL VHF QSO Party, or the Arkansas QSO Party.  
But wiith careful date placement, you might get those people who  
desperately need a contest fix, with few or no other options.
 
 
73  -  Jim  K8MR
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 9/16/2014 6:14:46 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
k9yc at audiosystemsgroup.com writes:

The  Manager of the SSB Sprint is a member of our club. I saw him at the 
NCCC  meeting last week, when he talked for 45 minutes about CQP (of 
which he is  also the Chair), but said not a word about SSB Sprint. His 
announcement on  this reflector was a few hours before the start, far too 
late to promote  activity or organize teams. Not a single word moved on 
the NCCC reflector  about SSB Sprint until it was over.  Perhaps SSB 
Sprint needs someone  with the fire in his ass to make things happen. 
N5KO and I have been  talking about some sort of campaign to build 
activity in the CW  Sprint.  He's got databases from participants from 
prior years that  could be used for postcards or emails. I'm willing to 
kick in some bucks  to make it happen.

This time around, I started about 45 minutes late  and quite about 50 
minutes early when Qs were >5 minutes apart on 80M,  my best band.

73, Jim K9YC

The On Mon,9/15/2014 2:16 PM, K4XS  via CQ-Contest wrote:
> I agree that activity has hit an all time  low.
>   
> I've been doing Sprint since the 80s and  unless you got over 300 Qs  you
> lost and might not even make top  5.
>   
> In the Sprint last Saturday I had a  malfunction of my 40 meter  antenna
> after only 5 or so Qs,  leaving only 20 (which had pretty well petered  
out) and
> 80 which  was nil for activity.  Having only made a miserable 90+  Qs  in
> almost two hours I decided to throw in the towel.    Boring!!!
>   
> In the last few Sprints it has been  pretty much begging to get Qs  and 
then
> the top guys only made  around 240-250 Qs, many of them begging  Qs.
>   
>  This used to be a great contest and it's said the contest has  become  a
> shell of its old self.
>   
> Bill  K4XS/KH7XS
>    
>