[CQ-Contest] Level Playing Field and Geography

[john at kk9a.com]

What about the Sweepstakes contests?  I have not read any complaints about
the lack of high scores from the Atlantic/East Coast.


Top five SO for 2014 CW
N9RV	            232,898
W7RN (N6TV, op)   224,930
N2IC/5            213,974
N2NT (N2NC, op)	212,148
NR5M (K5GA, op)   210,156

Top five SO for 2014 SSB
W7WA	            369,018		 
N9RV (K5TR, op)	351,256
K5TA           	332,332
K6NA (N6ED, op)	325,028
AA5B	            308,594


73,
John KK9A


To:	cq-contest at contesting.com
Subject:	[CQ-Contest] Level Playing Field and Geography
From:	Jim Brown <k9yc at audiosystemsgroup.com>
Reply-to:	k9yc at arrl.net
Date:	Mon, 25 May 2015 12:24:18 -0700

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