[CQ-Contest] SS and CW contesting

[John Geiger]

"And MOST importantly look at the
checks in the last SS."

We can't do that since people can send whatever number they want.  Maybe
lots of new hams are running the CWSS but they send checks in the 50s, 60,
and 70s so people think they are really experienced hams, and so people
can't use the prefills :)

On Thu, Nov 9, 2017 at 9:18 AM, Bill via CQ-Contest <
cq-contest at contesting.com> wrote:

> It has now been 10 years since the US went code-free and ham radio license
> numbers are at ALL TIME highs - 750K total, half are general and extra that
> have HF privileges. 30K new techs a year, 10K upgrades a year from tech to
> general/extra. The problem for CW contesting is the number of hams that can
> copy code at 20+ WPM is decreasing and will continue to do so. New hams are
> on SSB/FM/digital. Look at the FT8 band segments on a bandscope. Look at
> the
> QSO totals in the RTTY contests. Read QST. And MOST importantly look at the
> checks in the last SS.
>
> Looking at the number of submitted logs for a contest doesn't indicate how
> the contest is doing, because it is now so easy to submit a log via web
> page
> copy and paste. A good indication is for all the ops that put in 22+ hours
> last weekend to ask themselves if they HAD fun and if they look forward to
> putting in 22+ hours next year? Did they feel like they couldn't wait for
> it
> to end? Were they squirming in their chair the last few hours?
>
> The only significant major contest scoring change I can think of in the
> last
> 45 years is WPX getting rid of zero point Q's. That's when I started
> entering
> the WPX. There needs to be some changes in the SS for those of us that
> still
> operate CW contests. Only 54 stations reported on 3830 operating 24 hours.
> In
> 2010 there were 125 stations. I don't see anything positive in that trend.
>
> 73, Bill KO7SS  (47 years operating CWSS)
> _______________________________________________
> CQ-Contest mailing list
> CQ-Contest at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
>