[CQ-Contest] Be careful what you wish for

[Ed Sawyer]

SS has been an old timers contest for as long as I have been contesting -
20+ years.  Virtually no one coming into contesting in the last 2 decades is
a gung ho SS competitor.  The SS group is growing old or dieing off.  

 

But don't compare that to most other contests.  CQ WW SSB was amazing.  Rate
meter spending LONG times above 200 and 300 peaks observed numerous times
during the weekend.  3000 - 4600 Qs logged by the top 10 US HP and 9000 Qs
logged by 8P5A SOAB HP leader.  CQ WW CW has been no exception in the past
to be as much if not more volume of Qs than the SSB contest.

 

SS has a problem - that is not debatable.  But SSB contesting and CW
contesting don't show signs of problems in most other contests.  In fact -
until this last year of greatly diminishing sunspots - have been on a decade
long growth trend globally.

 

Its easy to fix the boredom of SS.  But its not easy to do it and keep it
the same old SS.  Choices need to be made.

 

73

 

Ed  N1UR