[CQ-Contest] Contest Idea

[Mark]

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)