[CQ-Contest] Level Playing Field and Geography

[Jim Brown]

On Mon,5/25/2015 10:57 AM, W0MU wrote:
> In 30 years how many times has that happened?  In 30 years what is the 
> percentage of Atlantic/East Coast winners compared to the rest of the 
> field.  I suspect these numbers strongly favor the East Coast/Atlantic 
> region. 

 From Steve's website:

I've operated FD QRP with a tribander and low dipoles from a 5,000 ft 
peak near Monterey, CA. I could hold a run frequency for most of FD on 
CW, and had rates around 70/hour at the end of the contest!  It's like 
stealing candy from a baby. In Steve's case, it's like being at least 
1,500 miles closer to whoever you're trying to work.

Yes, Steve's a great op, but his QTH is worth a lot. Another great op, 
Trey, N5KO, turns in winning scores for domestic contests from a similar 
site (see W6NL) at the edge of Silicon Valley. When I lived in Chicago, 
anyone operating there was much louder than anyone from W6.

Someone (Randy or Doug?) did an excellent presentation to CTU in Dayton 
this year that I watched online. In it, he showed all the entries for 
CQWW plotted as dots on a world map. The greater the distance from the 
Atlantic Basin, the fewer the number of dots.

That map is powerful support for my thesis that the current scoring 
rules are bad for contesting, because they discourage participation by 
anyone outside the Atlantic Basin. Look at W6 as compared to the East 
Coast. California is 12% of the US population. I'd bet that fewer than 
1% of US entries in CQWW are from W6.

Look at VK/ZL -- population 8% of US. Look at Asia. Even more telling -- 
look at the writeup in CQ. Top scores are listed by US, by EU, and 
"World." Why no listings for SA?  For OC? For AS? For AF? The answer is 
simple -- they're not in the "old boys' club that makes the scoring 
rules! Why do stations in PJ, P4, etc. not bother to try to work SA (and 
stations in AF not bother to work AF)?  Simple -- it's a 1 point Q, 
while the rest of the world is 3 points and has a lot more mults, and 
you've got to turn your beam to work them.

The scoring rules define the contest. For major DX contests, they are 
badly broken.

73, Jim K9YC