[CQ-Contest] NAQP CW - Rules Changes Needed

[Kevan Nason]

It was after several trips to a multi-multi that the assisted bug bit me
hard, so I understand the “old school” viewpoint.  Although most all my
operation now is Assisted, I welcome the NAQP to keep unassisted skills
sharp. That’s because, IMHO, Assisted ops don’t generally score high
without also being good runners and having strong S&P skills. Let’s keep
NAQP’s unassisted. Besides, there are evidently several people who like the
rules as they are. (Many have forgotten it, but there is word called
“compromise”. Not every contest has to try and please everyone.)



Wait until participation goes down before changing the rules?  You think
people would come back in after leaving?  That doesn’t sound like a good
idea to me. We want to encourage more new contesters, not discourage the
old ones that are still here. If anything, keeping old folks around who
want to be assisted is actually a reason to change the rules. It would be
good to keep them happy. On the other hand, changing to allow Assisted
might drive some out. Experience says people are more likely to stick
around and keep griping if things stay the same; as opposed to more likely
to leave if they don't like a change that was forced on them. Let's leave
it alone and keep more people contesting.



As a separate issue, people talk a lot about abusing power limits in the
NAQP’s. I noticed (and later post-contest read a comment from a second ham
that he too experienced the same thing) that within a minute or two of
showing up CQing on a new band I would have a rush of people calling me. It
was remarkably similar to being fresh RBN meat in a contest that allows
spotting. After the initial rush, things settled out to normal rates. Just
as it does in a contest where people are using spots. What’s up with that?
It happened often enough to be suspicious. Rhetorical question, but don’t
people with well known calls read the rules? It was suggested it was SO2R
operating. Both the other ham and I thought we were found way too quickly
for that to be plausible. Occam's Razor suggests spotting assistance was
being used by too many people in this contest.


Art, are you implying people who like assistance are wimps?


Kevan N4XL