[CQ-Contest] : Re: NAQP CW - Rules Changes Needed

[Mike Smith VE9AA]

Ken, 

I respectfully disagree with you and here's why:

In an ASSISTED contest, the first time a mult pops up, you as a tiny HOA stn
are competing

against the big MM's, the M/2, the M/S and all the HP(a) single ops. (and
the unassisted guys who can spin a VFO and wander by)

You're also competing against all the happy clickers for the regular (non
mult) contacts as well.

 

As a LP unassisted station, in a mostly unassisted contest such as NAQP you
stand a MUCH better chance of not  being in a lot of these same "packet
pileups" if there is no assistance in the contest.

 

This is especially revealing in a SSB contest where there is no RBN.  As
long as I spin the VFO I can S&P lots and lots of stations who are calling
CQ.

If they've been spotted (by a human of course) the pileup can be deep.  

 

I have no illusion that the organizers will suddenly change the spirit of
the NAQP by suddenly adding an assisted class because a couple folks
grumbled that NAQP can't be the same as 98% of other contests out there, so
this discussion is mostly academic.

 

73 de Mike VE9AA..

 

A lot actually.  Small stations doing mostly S&P, HOA or not, get better 

results running assisted.  Almost everyone calling CQ gets spotted on CW and


RTTY, so there aren't two categories of CQing stations, spotted or
unspotted.  

Only newly spotted stations have cluster pile ups.  Other CQing stations, 

spotted or not, experience normal answering patterns. A (very) few stations
get 

missed somehow by the RBN.  The chances of an unassisted station finding
lots 

of unspotted CQing stations is small.  

 

I can testify to that as I have lots of both unassisted and assisted
operation 

experience from a miniscule station.

 

In contests where there is a choice (like the WPX), I sometimes operate 

unassisted just because that is a shrinking category and I might have a
better 

chance for a certificate.  But in any given contest under similar conditions
in 

successive years, my assisted score has always been higher than my
unassisted 

one.  Sometimes dramatically so.

 

73,

Ken, AB1J

 

Mike, Coreen & Corey

Keswick Ridge, NB