[CQ-Contest] Leveling the playing field

[Ed Sawyer]

I believe in the statement that you don't solve a problem that isn't a
problem.

 

CQWW and CQWPX are the fastest growing contests in our sport folks.  Those
who think that somehow the lack of a level playing field is affecting the
contest to its detriment have their head in the sand.  Look at the numbers.
The fact is that BECAUSE of the scoring system, it motivates a good number
of people to spend lots of money and take lots of time to go to great DX
places.  Thus, these contests are more and more fun because of it.  And the
contest grows because of the fun factor.

 

ARRL DX and IARU are fun contests, but they don't compare for cool DX.  And
you could argue that both of these contests are more forgiving of some geos
on scoring than CQWW or CQWPX.  Does it affect participation? Nope.

 

Will the folks that are so passionate about new scoring systems please
CREATE a new contest that follows all of their teachings?  We could use
another great DX contest that has 4000+ logs submitted.  Based on the dialog
here, that should be no problem to generate with the right scoring system.

 

Oh and by the way, SS in the US is very unfair to North East US stations.
It should have inverse mileage based scoring actually to level the playing
field.  But there is negative growth in that contest so why beat a dead
horse.

 

Lets stop criticizing what is working and create growth instead with our
great new ideas.

 

The first weekend of February is a good open weekend and you might get some
DX stations to stick around between CQ 160 CW and ARRL DX CW to participate.

 

Ed  N1UR