[CQ-Contest] CQ-Contest Digest, Vol 179, Issue 14

[Eric Gruff]

Tor - I think we do need the time restrictions, because the idea is to
"force" everyone to stick around until at least partway through Sunday
afternoon to get a higher score. 

I'm way down in the lower left corner of the US, with a decent, but not
exceptional station, and I could easily have worked many stations on two
bands within a few minutes on Saturday (80/40 or 40/20 or 20/15) by just
moving them to the 2nd band. That happens a lot in other contests where you
can work everyone once on each band, and IMO isn't a good idea here as it
really changes the makeup of SS. 

I also still like the idea of making the last few hours a bonus round. Maybe
for new mults only, or some other permutation that really incentivizes folks
to operate late in the contest. 

Glad to see other folks proposing many of the same ideas here. Maybe ARRL
will consider some of them.

Eric NC6K

Message: 5
Date: Tue, 7 Nov 2017 14:41:21 +0000 (UTC)
From: RT Clay <rt_clay at bellsouth.net>
To: <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] So Sunday Sucked?
Message-ID: <1840158291.3720516.1510065681208 at mail.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

Allowing two qsos seems like the best idea to me so far. If one contact had
to be on the high bands (20/15/10) and one on the low bands (40/80/160) it
would be a little fairer to different geographic areas and still not require
everyone to have a 6-band station to do well. To give incentive for people
to operate longer, make each qso 1 point (less than it is now), and an extra
1 bonus point if you get both qsos with a station. Leave multipliers
unchanged.

I am not sure if time restrictions (first half/second half/etc) are needed,
one qso on high versus low bands will usually spread the two contacts out in
time anyway due to propagation differences. Specific time restrictions also
won't be liked by part-timers who can only operate Saturday or Sunday. If
any changes are made to the rules they need to be simple to understand.


Tor
N4OGW

--------------------------------------------
On Mon, 11/6/17, Eric Gruff <egruff at cox.net> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] So Sunday Sucked?
 To: cq-contest at contesting.com
 Date: Monday, November 6, 2017, 10:13 PM
 
 I don't normally get into these rule change  discussions, because there are
N  + 10 opinions for every N hams, but it  dawned on me that one or more of
the  following are fairly easy to implement,  might stir more activity on
Sunday  afternoon/evening, and won't alter the  contest enough to "hurt it"
in the  eyes of most purists:
 
 1. Split the time in half (15 + 15
 hours, or the first 24 and last 6 hours),  and allow one QSO with each
station in  each segment. In other words,  everyone can work each station
twice in  the contest, but you have to stick  around to get the 2nd QSO. It
might  also help keep some of the rare mults on  the air for long enough
that we can all  find them. I suppose we could count  each multiplier once
per half, thus  giving folks incentive to try for a  double sweep, but
that's probably  overkill. Dupe checking is going to be a  bit more
challenging, but pretty much  everyone uses software that should be  able to
easily tell us if we can  re-work a station in the 2nd segment.
  
 1a. Corollary to above - only allow the  2nd contact on a different band
than  previously worked. A bit more  challenging, because you can't move
someone  after a QSO, but have to wait until the  next segment of the
contest to work  them on the 2nd band.
 
 2. Give a QSO multiplier (1.5x ?) for
 contacts made in the last six or eight
 hours of the contest period.
 
 Obviously, high scores will change for
 the first two scenarios, but at least
 folks will be incentivized to stick
 around at the end of the contest. I
 don't think either option will stop
 folks from participating at the
 beginning for a lot of reasons, and
 will make the strategy of choosing the
 24 of 30 hours to operate a bit more
 challenging. IMO, the last six hours
 are one of the few advantages for us
 West Coast operators - we don't have to  stay up until 10 PM (or later for
folks  in Atlantic Time) on a Sunday night  to finish the contest.
 
 NC6K
 
 
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End of CQ-Contest Digest, Vol 179, Issue 14
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