[CQ-Contest] Some WPX Thoughts

[jimk8mr at aol.com]

Some thoughts on WPX:

1.  My personal view - I wasn't around when WPX started - is that WPX was conceived as a DX contest, simply allowing for a more uniform distribution of multipliers. At the time there were 20 USA prefixes, with geographic distinction. W1's couldn't be licensed in or operate in W6, other than by signing /6.  So the USA became 20 multipliers, not just one. And to keep it a DX contest, same country QSOs were given zero points.

2. This all changed with 2x1 calls, both in the USA and in many other countries, when anybody could be a "rare" multiplier.

3. Some years back, in the days of zero point same country QSOs, I decided to go for a big zero point WPX effort. As I recall I had something like 150 USA QSOs, which I believe was the second biggest all time zero point score, behind only Dr. Bafoofnik, a.k.a. Spike, W9XR, who one year had about 300 such QSOs.

4. The next year, they made it one point for same country QSOs.  And of course, with same country QSO points, it ceased to be a pure DX contest. 

5.  For many years WPX was just an SSB contest. CW is a relatively recent addition. I think that helps explain why extra points are given for low band QSOs, since on SSB those have always been tougher than high band QSOs, given both propagation and the fact that many or most low band SSB DX QSOs used to involve split frequency operation.



It's still a fun contest, one of the few where it doesn't take a huge travel budget to be a "rare one", or at least a "unique" one.



73  -  Jim   K8MR       (In recent years NC8C in WPX)

#yiv2287558851 -- filtered {}#yiv2287558851 filtered {}#yiv2287558851 p.yiv2287558851MsoNormal, #yiv2287558851 li.yiv2287558851MsoNormal, #yiv2287558851 div.yiv2287558851MsoNormal {margin:0in;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;}#yiv2287558851 a:link, #yiv2287558851 span.yiv2287558851MsoHyperlink {color:blue;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv2287558851 pre {margin:0in;font-size:10.0pt;}#yiv2287558851 p.yiv2287558851MsoListParagraph, #yiv2287558851 li.yiv2287558851MsoListParagraph, #yiv2287558851 div.yiv2287558851MsoListParagraph {margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:sans-serif;}#yiv2287558851 span.yiv2287558851HTMLPreformattedChar {}#yiv2287558851 .yiv2287558851MsoChpDefault {}#yiv2287558851 filtered {}#yiv2287558851 div.yiv2287558851WordSection1 {}#yiv2287558851 filtered {}#yiv2287558851 filtered {}#yiv2287558851 filtered {}#yiv2287558851 filtered {}#yiv2287558851 filtered {}#yiv2287558851 filtered {}#yiv2287558851 filtered {}#yiv2287558851 filtered {}#yiv2287558851 filtered {}#yiv2287558851 filtered {}#yiv2287558851 ol {margin-bottom:0in;}#yiv2287558851 ul {margin-bottom:0in;}