[CQ-Contest] So Sunday Sucked?

Wed Nov 8 16:33:47 EST 2017

I think having four major popular contests within five weeks is part of the problem with participation levels. How many of us can work all four full time? How about three out of four?

I like SS in its current form where you can only work each station once. Having a modest station with mostly wires I can do pretty well. 

Here are some of my ideas that I think could make Sunday less boring. 

Shorten the contest a little bit. After all it is a domestic contest where you can only work each station once regardless of band.  Have the contest start at 00:00Z on Sunday and end at 23:59Z work 20 out of the 24 hours. By doing that you are not killing off all of Saturday to ham radio(except if you are in KH6 or KL7). By ending at 23:59Z you can regain Sunday night to watch TV with your family:)

How about adding a 10 or 12 hour category. How many people that can’t work 24 hours for whatever reason only get on for a few hours?
By adding this category some of those people may stay on longer if they have something to compete for resulting in more QSO’s for everyone else. 

Move SS CW to the second weekend in November to get a little break from CQWW SSB. 

73 Mike N2GC

Sent from my iPhone

> On Nov 8, 2017, at 7:59 AM, Richard F. DiDonna <richnn3w at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> When I was throwing out ideas on improving QSO totals and activity level, I floated three ideas - all of which involved granting a second QSO.  I've re-thought the high band v. low band split and now believe that it may not solve the matter in that a large number of hams cannot realistically work other hams within their skip zone. For hams in the northeast and north central (SMC land), that means a significant penalty.
> 
> I'd still be inclined to allow for two QSOs on any two bands.  80 and 20, 80 and 40, 20 and 15.  In order to ensure a "democratized" landscape, I'd want to make sure that hams couldn't simply "move" every contact to the second band.  I'd require at least a 10 minute gap between QSOs on different bands.
> 
> The other option is to allow a second QSO, but in the second half of the contest - one in the first 15 hours and one in the second 15 hours.  That may affect off time strategy, but I doubt by a lot.
> 
> 73 Rich NN3W
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>> On 11/7/2017 10:51 AM, Kelly Taylor wrote:
>> I like the idea of two QSOs split by time, as it means stations with the big low-band antennas aren’t necessarily going to run up the rate meter all over again.
>> 
>> If you split it by high-band vs. low-band, you might not actually solve the Sunday doldrums problem, as the big stations might just work through all their second QSOs Saturday night anyway.
>> 
>> As well, making the split high-band vs. low-band will hand the contest to the stations with the big low-band antennas. The way SS works now, big low-band antennas aren’t a huge advantage because they primarily provide access to stations already worked on the high bands. The bigger low-band antennas in some way are a disadvantage, because the one-Q per station rule means they are more often working just the closer stations they couldn’t get on the high bands, just like stations with smaller low-band antennas (low inverted vees, etc.).
>> 
>> A way to solve Sunday doldrums without costing SS its democratization would be perfect.
>> 
>> I think splitting it by time solves the doldrums plus gives equal advantage to small and big stations.
>> 
>> 73, kelly, ve4xt
>>  
>>> On Nov 7, 2017, at 8:41 AM, RT Clay <rt_clay at bellsouth.net> wrote:
>>> 
>>> 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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