[CQ-Contest] What is Multi to you?

[Stan Stockton]

Radio contesting is a lot like golf.  You need to be happy comparing your results in your own mind to what you have done in the past, how well you played based on how well you feel you should have played, comparing to others who you feel are at the same level, etc.  

There are very few (I'm aware of none and certainly there are none with any meaning) golf tournaments where handicaps are used to lump everyone in the same competition.  If you ever find one that does you will undoubtedly find few good golfers who have low handicaps who choose to participate.  You will NEVER find a golfer with a 1 handicap who believes he "lost" to someone with a 12 handicap when they play together and the scores are 74 and 83.  If you ever find a 12 handicapper who actually believes he "beat" a 1 handicapper because he got within 9 strokes, you've just found a delusional idiot.

I think to make everyone happy the results should be able to be filtered however you want and certificates should be able to be printed for whatever your filtered results determine.  One could perhaps print a certificate that shows the entry came in 3rd place in North America for low power 15m SSB with a general license, operating only one radio with spotting assistance from your own QTH and a wire antenna up less than 50 feet.   If the operator would be proud to frame that certificate and put it on the wall, great; no harm to anyone.  Most would be happy instead to have fun and believe they did well using what they had.

To attempt to "handicap" that station's operation by spotting it 2 million points over a station that was well equipped with a good operator and then saying that the lesser station "won" because the superior station only had 1.8 million more points is totally absurd.

One thing I have seen here that makes sense is perhaps having a "Classic" multi single category that allows multiple operators to share one transmitter.

73... Stan, K5GO

> On May 10, 2017, at 11:56 AM, W0MU Mike Fatchett <w0mu at w0mu.com> wrote:
> 
> Why can't contesting be both.  A place for friends and novices to get together and have a good time and have a chance to do well and feel like you have a chance to win.  How many people really have a chance to really win?  Very few.  It used to be you could go down to the Caribbean with a FD style setup and win.  That is very very difficult now with the Multi stations with 8 rigs, multiple 100 ft towers etc.  I applaud their dedication, time and money to build great stations but there is little competition.
> 
> If golf if you participate in a tournament (contest) you are allowed to get a handicap which while certainly not perfect is an attempt to level the playing field so that you can feel like you have a shot.  There are always going to be talented people that most likely can win but in golf anything is possible as everyone plays the exact same course on the same day.  In contesting we have a bunch of golf tournaments going on all on separate courses and then we crown a winner when none of the courses are the same.
> 
> The goal here is to attract new people. I applaud those that continue to work on personal goals.  You cannot sell that to new folks and to the younger generations.
> 
> W0MU
> 
> 
>> On 5/10/2017 9:28 AM, Tony Osman wrote:
>> Gerry
>> 
>> I am enjoying this thread and listening to the various arguments. I have participated in all entry classes in CQWW  (with the exception of QRP) and I have enjoyed them all. I do find that multi-single (when keeping to the rules) is one entry where you can have other operators manning the multiplier station who are guys newer to contesting and could be intimidated by the abilities of others to run at high rates, but know that they are fully participating by finding new mults.  It is a good opportunity to bring someone into the contesting game.  Are you going to win? probably not, but mentoring has its own winning....
>> 
>> I am in awe of the guys who can sustain very high rates (running 150-200 qs per hour as an AVERAGE!).  They have a special talent and I can only wonder at it - the same as I wonder at golfers who can shoot a 64 on a course that I shoot 64 (on the back 9!). It is interesting to see some M/S QSO totals that are almost as high as M/2 (within 10%). Participants in M/S can have advantages when a M/M station uses its resources to supply many more multiplier operators, but I doubt if this has anything like the same advantage that the geographical advantage has - 3 point vs 2 point per QSO.  The running station still has to make a very large number of contacts and yes, if you have multiple people of the same high skill level available, they are going to be able to run faster for shorter periods of time than the 48hr marathon, but that is just the nature of the team and the category.
>> 
>> However, none of this does not stop me from competing.  My goal is always to beat my personal best, in this I am competing solely against me, the same station, the same antennas (mostly) but each time a year older!  I also enjoy team competition where I no longer have to try and stay the full course and  the camaraderie for the weekend is even better than the actual contest (well - almost).
>> 
>> I also remember that this is not my livelihood but a hobby. So I will be happy to have a beer with you and Yuri at Dayton too!
>> 
>> 
>> Tony
>> VE3RZ
>> 
>>> On 5/10/2017 9:02 AM, Gerry Hull wrote:
>>> Hi Yuri,
>>> 
>>> No offense taken.
>>> 
>>> Take the NASCAR analogy.   Yes, I expect people to push the rules -- like
>>> they do in car racing.   When they found certain techniques were causing
>>> completely out-of-bound results, they reigned in the rules.
>>> 
>>> My point of view is yes, an 8-station M/S certainly is advancing the state
>>> of the technology art -- and I have no problem with the people doing it, in
>>> fact I'm in awe from the technology perspective..  However, what is it
>>> doing for contesting overall?   Maybe I'm a bit too altruistic.    If the
>>> three or four stations worldwide who use this technique dominate M/S for
>>> many years to come, what have they proven?   That they can win by pushing
>>> the rules to the absolute limit.  There is inherently nothing wrong with
>>> that -- that is part of what competition is.
>>> 
>>> What does it do to participation in the category is another question
>>> completely.
>>> 
>>> I can argue the same point about remote:  So far, in general, it have
>>> proven a challenge to generate the same level of scores from a remote as
>>> you can from being on location.  As skills and technology improve, I think
>>> you will see this change.  The ability to put rare multipliers on, and, the
>>> ability of contesters to come back into the fold (who are QRT in
>>> covenant-restricted QTHs), I would argue, has huge benefit to all the in
>>> the contest community.  Just ask a lot of contesters in southern California
>>> or Florida.
>>> 
>>> The purpose of this reflector, hopefully, other than a bitch session, is to
>>> express ideas.  Let's continue the discussion.
>>> 
>>> Yuri, we can talk about it more over a beer in Dayton...
>>> 
>>> 73, Gerry W1VE
>> 
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