[CQ-Contest] Fw: Contest within a contest

[Jim Brown]

On 3/18/2020 9:57 AM, Denis Pochuev K7GK wrote:
> Yes, I certainly agree with this. Auroral path characteristics should be an essential part of any scoring scheme, which attempts to address lack of fairness of the current system. The only feasible approach to this interesting challenge that I see so far is using statistical data, perhaps from the open logs, to characterize prevalence of contacts between different areas. The number of contacts between areas divided by their contesting populations might serve as a proxy for the difficulty of the contact.

Agreed. NI6T first alerted to the significance of the auroral path when 
working EU. Propagation is generally much better for paths that traverse 
less of the auroral zone. He noted the significant difference, for 
example, between NorCal and SoCal/AZ.

I have previously suggested contest scoring normalized to a regional 
handicap, similar to what has been used for some WRTC qualifications. In 
such a system, contest winners would be those performing best relative 
to their geographic peers.

Such a system could greatly increase participation from outside the 
Atlantic basin, especially with distance-based points/QSO,  making 
contests much more fun.

73, Jim K9YC