[CQ-Contest] Who is whining, and why?

[Art Boyars]

Somebody said here:

"Here in California many top-notch SS scores are already lacking MAR
section multipliers due to the distance and poor representation from that
section due to low populations, why should we have to listen to whiners who
want Maritime broken up into five sections in the SS just to make them
rarer DX?"

Well, that gets my dander up enough to respond.

1. "SS scores" and "broken up into five sections in the SS" -- Nobody is
(publicly) asking for separate section status in SS.  They are talking
about Sprint and NAQP where mult's are states/provinces ... unless you
happen to be in one of the demeaned Maritime Provinces (or DC or the three
parts of NT).  They are NOT talking about being separate sections -- like
WTX, WCF, ORG and VI have done in the last few decades.

2. "Poor representation" -- ARRL's "Logs Received" for 2014 SS shows five
MAR on CW (ranging from 18K to 91K points), and three on SSB (2K to 58K).
On SSB my log has three others, including one who had 500 QSOs when he
worked me.  I, myself, can remember when W6BIP (SK) was the only station
active from SF.  We didn't complain.  We just worked harder to catch him.
(And kudos to NCCC for activating all those SF stations nowadays.  Can
somebody do something about SBAR?)

3. "just to make them rarer DX" -- I'm not sure about the op's in MAR, but
for the DC guys (my neighbors) it's a matter of geopolitical pride. (The
disenfranchisement of residents of DC is a constant political issue around
here.) The original comment, above, asserts that MAR is already rare; I
doubt that any of the MAR op's are looking to become rarer.

73, Art K3KU