[CQ-Contest] Leveling the playing field

[Jim Brown]

On Tue,11/10/2015 4:34 AM, Drew Vonada-Smith wrote:
> Kelly has nailed this one.  It is appropriate that we take reasonable care to equalize competition within a simple system.  For example.
>
> 1) Let's separate high and low power
> 2) Lets separate assisted operation
> 3) Lets separate when more than one person operates, or more than one transmitter.
> 4) Let's divide up results by geographical area.
>
> Sound familiar?  Yes, one could go farther, but where does it end?

There are many possible improvements/solutions that could be made in 
scoring systems. As a kid, I remember my parents participating in 
amateur bowling leagues that operated on a handicap system. A handicap 
system with operators competing based on their performance within the CQ 
Zone where their station (defined by RF) is located would be a great 
start. A similar system is currently in use to determine seats in the 
next WRTC.

With this kind of system, an operator's total score would be divided by 
the average score from all the operators in his class in his zone. This 
simple adjustment, easy to do by the contest sponsor after log checking, 
corrects for propagation and geography. It does NOT account for 
differences in stations, but many of us, me included, consider station 
building part of contesting.

Think distance is not a good metric? Try working EU on 160, 80, 40, or 
10M from W6. Why is this important?  Because that's where the 
multipliers are. A handful of 80M is possible only for stations with 
great antennas, and we still must get through the east coast wall. 40M 
is better, but still mostly limited to grey line conditions on one end 
or the other, and optimum hour(s) in the middle of the night. I haven't 
heard EU on 160M for three seasons! 10M opens from W6 to EU about 10% of 
the time that it opens from EU to the east coast. The differences are 
clearly shown in real time on websites like this one. The map can be 
selected to show individual continents and the world.

http://www.dxmaps.com/spots/map.php?Lan=E&Frec=28&ML=M&Map=W2LN&DXC=N&HF=N&GL=N

Even on 20 and 15, east coast stations are at a considerable advantage 
-- because they're 2,000-3,000 miles closer, openings are longer and 
stronger (they're one hop closer) they don't go over the Pole to get there.

73, Jim K9YC