[CQ-Contest] Distance-Based Ranking

[Ward Silver]

 > It IS possible to design scoring rules that achieve this.

Easy to say, hard to specify. I would certainly like to see a scoring 
system that works across a useful fraction of the world's countries and 
contest populations.  And that does not require complex calculations or 
weighting factors.  And is robust enough to withstand the vagaries of 
propagation throughout the solar cycle and across the more than four 
octaves of frequency spanned during a typical DX contest.

For example, look at the relative numbers of W6-EU QSOs and mults on 15 
meters in a year where the flux is, say, 140-150 and then 75-90. In the 
first year, you might need an equalizing factor of 3 to 5 and in the bad 
year an equalizing factor of 20 or higher.  What about on 80 or 160 
meters where the QSO ratios might be 100:1 or more?  Are we going to 
change the scoring rules every year?  Even if EU wants very badly to 
work the West Coast, there is no guarantee they will be able to do so - 
as anyone who ever contested from the West Coast knows.  If there was a 
real-time "degree of difficulty" metric based on propagation, that might 
be a way to compare the value of QSOs but I don't know how to devise 
such a thing.

Having thought through several scoring schemes over the years, you'll 
find it a daunting task.  Any proposal should be validated using the 
public log set available on the CQ WW website.

 > The point is that while winning one's region may make a contester 
feel better, there will always be the question of how contesters compare 
across regions.

I didn't propose that a regional ranking system would work for 
inter-region comparisons.  Actually, quite the opposite, recognizing 
that it's almost impossible to do so.  The point of a regional ranking 
system is to provide an alternative means of peer-to-peer comparison.  
(The proposed system deals specifically with corner cases such as the 
isolated ZD8, by the way, recognizing that in some instances, a regional 
rating may not be possible.)

Certainly, the question will then exist - does a 700 rating from 
California equal a 700 rating from New England equal a 700 rating from 
Berlin?  The only way to find out - as in chess - is to have players of 
equal rank compete head to head.  That's what WRTC does and there is no 
reason except resources that there can't be NA-RTC and AS-RTC and so 
forth.  Russia has its own version of RRTC that works really well and 
they hold it every year.  Perhaps even a West Coast-RTC?

There are no perfect systems that solve all problems.  There are some 
systems that address certain identified inequities - such as geography.  
I am not of the opinion that any of them can flatten the playing field 
sufficiently to reduce geography's dominant role in HF contesting.

73, Ward N0AX