[CQ-Contest] CQWW madness

[Richard F DiDonna NN3W]

On 7/23/2016 11:13 PM, Jim Brown wrote:
> On Sat,7/23/2016 5:50 PM, Ed Sawyer wrote:
>> Why are we beating up the CQWW contest? SS and NAQP are not fair either.
>
> Actually, SS and NAQP are relatively competitive between different 
> parts of NA. In SS,  PVRC, SMC, and NCCC have each turned in wins in 
> Large Club competitons, and another half dozen or so smaller clubs 
> have done will the Medium and Small club competions. Indeed, it's been 
> largely a matter of motivation of members as to which club wins any 
> given year.

If you look at SS wins, there hasn't been a single winner at the SOAB 
level in the past 20 years that has been from W1, W2, W3, W4, W8, W9, or 
W0.  The winners have all been from the corners - W7 (Washington and 
Montana, VY2, KP4/2 and KH6) on SSB, and W5 (New Mexico which K9YC 
argues is an aberrational station), W7 (MT, NV, and WA), and KP4.  
Arguing that club competition shows equal playing field is nonsense.  
We're discussing individual efforts (as we are in CQWW).

And believe me, there are some strong operators from the East coast who 
compete in Sweeps.....
>
> Likewise, top NAQP and NA Sprint scores are spread around, and there's 
> quite healthy competition between teams. NCCC teams often place well 
> in both contests, even beating "ad hoc" teams of top operators all 
> over NA.
>
NAQP is a comparatively small event run twice a year - providing very 
different propagation experiences.  I was #2 once in NAQP - losing to 
K7RL by the equivalent of two QSOs.

> IMO, the most unfair element of SS is the number of geographically 
> small sections with relatively little ham activity, most of them 
> located where they're easy to work on 80/75 from W1/2/3. I'm thinking 
> of the four new VE3 sections, RI, and MAR sections.  The only section 
> comparable out west is SF; things are better there since K6SRZ moved 
> from Berkeley (EB) to wine country (part of the SF section) when he 
> retired several years ago.
>
There are a lot of odd sections in Sweeps - depending on the year. Hams 
on the east coast have fits with sections like San Francisco, Santa 
Barbara, and (sometimes) LAX.  One year, everyone had problems in the CW 
leg with Nebraska.  NNY used to be problematic - even for east coast 
stations.

73 Rich NN3W