[CQ-Contest] SSB Sprint Suggestion

[K8MR via CQ-Contest]

Congratulations to the SSB Sprint guys on a well done event. I wasn't 
part of it - setting up a temporary antenna to operate in a noisy 
location is not an inspiring situation. But it was good to see lots of 
reported activity, including activity from DC and the Maritimes.

There was one thing the organizers did right, but I'm not sure if that 
was by accident or design. They picked a weekend with no other 
contests. When that happens, it make a good situation where us contest 
junkies will show up for a weekly contest fix.

Unfortunately that won't be the case on October 11:

+ Makrothen RTTY Contest	0000Z, Oct 10 to 1559Z, Oct 11
+ 10-10 Int. 10-10 Day Sprint	0001Z-2359Z, Oct 10
+ Oceania DX Contest, CW 	0800Z, Oct 10 to 0800Z, Oct 11
+ Scandinavian Activity Contest, SSB 	1200Z, Oct 10 to 1200Z, Oct 11
+ Pennsylvania QSO Party	1600Z, Oct 10 to 2200Z, Oct 11
+ EU Autumn Sprint, CW	1600Z-1959Z, Oct 10
+ Arizona QSO Party	1600Z, Oct 10 to 2359Z, Oct 11

Lots of other stuff going on, some of it at the same time as the 
Sprint, some not.

On the other hand, three weeks later:

High Speed Club CW Contest	0900Z-1700Z, Nov 1

An almost totally empty weekend, with zero concurrent events.

That's because like this time, the weekend splits two months. Since 
most contests pick an "Nth" or "Last" full weekend date, these odd 
weekends go unused. A great opportunity to squeeze in a short contest.

I'd highly suggest the SSB Sprint guys adopt an opportunistic schedule 
of weekends that split months, or in months with five full weekends 
where one of those weekends gets overlooked. This will result in 
Sprints being held at random but predictable times of the year.  It 
will take some extra promotion, but as we see, personal/targeted 
promotion such as was done this time works wonders. But a weekend with 
no other events makes for a good contest.

See you on Saturday evening, October 31?


73  -  Jim   K8MR   /4 in Snowbird Country