[CQ-Contest] DX Contest scoring schemes

[Jim Brown]

On Thu,5/28/2015 7:21 PM, Steve London wrote:
> 1500 miles. That's really funny, Jim. And has no factual basis, of 
> course.

Have you run HFTA for your QTH?  I've run it extensively, and it clearly 
shows 6-10 dB advantages to certain terrain.  6 dB is 4X the power; 10 
dB is 10x the power. Apply inverse square law, and it can have the 
effect of moving you that much closer.

> Every contest, my good contesting friends in central Texas, a mere 600 
> miles east of me, trounce me to Europe on every band. 

And from what I've seen, some of them have stacks on the higher bands.  
As does N6RO.

> And no, the bands do not open any earlier to Europe for me. I have to 
> wait for the sun to rise or set, just like everyone else. 

K6XX is three miles from me, but on the peak of a ridge I shoot over to 
EU. The higher bands DO open an hour so early, and stay open an hour or 
so later, to EU. And he works guys in JA that I don't hear.

I've run FD QRP twice from a 5,000 ft peak east of Monterey, CA.  It is 
VERY diffferent from operating at home, which I have also done FD QRP 
twice. On that peak, I could run for at least half of the time, and had 
a 70 hour at the end, and I made almost twice the number of Qs.

73, Jim K9YC