[CQ-Contest] Contest Idea

[Jim Neiger]

An obvious question, Randy:  will this country/zone chasing be assisted, 
or real DX chasing?

Jim Neiger  N6TJ


On 4/6/2017 5:03 PM, Randy Thompson K5ZD wrote:
> Hi Mark,
>
> I spent a lot of time thinking about something like this when I was Director
> of the CQWW.  I know there are a lot of DXers out there who operate the
> contest just to chase countries.  Always wondered if there would be interest
> in a "DXer" competition where the winner would have the highest total
> countries + zones.  I balked on doing something because it seemed like the
> top mults always went to the serious guys who made the most QSOs.  Never
> found a good way to put the emphasis more on DX chasing.  Perhaps a combined
> total for SSB and CW would help.
>
> Didn't see much discussion on this, but wanted to add some support for the
> idea.
>
> Randy, K5ZD
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: CQ-Contest [mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of
>> Mark
>> Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2017 9:23 PM
>> To: CQ-Contest at contesting.com
>> Subject: [CQ-Contest] Contest Idea
>>
>> A few days ago there were some comments around contests and rules you
>> would like to see.  So here is one idea.
>>
>> At the moment CQ has a DX Marathon that runs for a year.  I have been
>> thinking what would happen if there was a version that was run over 48
>> hours?  As with the Marathon the object would be to work as many
>> countries and zones as you could but unlike the CQ WW (for example) the
>> number of QSOs you make is irrelevant.  You could utilise the categories
>> in the existing CQ WW contests e.g. single op single band or all band,
>> assisted, unassisted, multi op etc.  The exchange would be report and CQ
>> Zone (the latter largely so you know what zone the person is in so you
>> can claim it).  Ties would be broken by looking at who worked their last
>> country/zone the earliest.
>>
>> Unlike the CQ WW which is largely a rate contest, this would be a
>> strategy contest i.e. you would have to figure out how to maximise your
>> country and zone count.  When do you call CQ? Should you S&P instead?
>> Which way should I turn my beam and when?  Of course you may end up
>> working a number of stations who do not count because you have already
>> worked someone in that region (but who you should log regardless), but
>> that might be the price worth paying to work for example that rare zone
>> guy who you have heard and who does not like pile ups.
>>
>> This sort of format might also encourage non-contesters (i.e DXers) to
>> have a go and from there if they like it a few more may turn up in the
>> more regular type contests.  Any QSO would also count towards the annual
>> DX marathon so a lot of those guys would probably turn up looking for new
>> countries.
>>
>> Issues to be considered would be modes and bands.  As a competition it
>> should probably be restricted to the non-WARC bands although of course
>> the annual DX Marathon covers all bands.  Presumably any mode should
>> count i.e.
>> CW SSB and digital which would certainly spread the participants out and
>> the entry categories should reflect that.
>>
>> Log checking should in theory be easier as you only have to worry about
>> QSOs that were new countries and Zones for an entrant.
>>
>> To avoid a cluttered contest calendar perhaps it could be run each year
>> on a weekend which crosses two months.  This year for example would be
>> September 30 and October 1.  That would add an additional element of
>> changing the seasonal propagation so you may need to think of a new
>> strategy each time.
>>
>> If you want to get an idea of what an outcome may look like, have a look
>> at the CQ WW results database and sort a category by countries worked.
>> It is quite interesting.
>>
>> 73
>> Mark ZL3AB (flameproof jacket suitably donned)
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