[CQ-Contest] Interest in CQWW - analysis

[Mark - N5OT]

K9YC wrote:

 > Thanks for your offer, Mark. It could be a lot of work. The words I 
chose are descriptive, not quantitative. They will be defined 
quantitatively by work like you have volunteered to do!

Thanks Jim for such a gracious response.

We can split hair about the word "most" but these numbers below show a 
definition of "most" can mean "less than half" which I think was why I 
asked in the first place (since "most" is commonly thought of as "more 
than half").  As far as measuring degree of turn-on, well, that is above 
my pay-grade.  How does the old quote go, "I know it when I see it."  
Apparently so does Jim but we both measure it differently.  Someone else 
can tackle that one.  As Ken AB1J posted, a survey could determine 
attitudes.

In the interest of crowd-sourcing what could be an interesting 
discussion amongst the enlightened here, I present some basic numbers 
for last year's CQWW Phone contest (all gleaned from Dr. Google and her 
World Wide Internet).  The data is at the end of this email.

- - - - - - - - - - -

  Analysis:

1.87% of all hams on the West Coast got on for the contest.

2.92% of all hams on the East Coast got on for the contest.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Definitions:

"All hams" means all hams who have a General, Advanced or Extra-class 
license

"Got on for the contest" means their callsign appeared at least once in 
a submitted log

"West Coast" means California, Oregon and Washington

"East Coast" means W1, W2 and W3

"Interest" means percentage of all hams who got on for the contest

"Greater interest" means the percentage is higher

For the purpose of this email, "hams" and "stations" and "callsigns" are 
all interchangeable.  No allowance was made for the number of operators 
who may have been on the air using a particular callsign, nor for their 
license class.  (e.g. Multiop entries).

- - - - - - - - - - -

Other interesting gleanings:

Based on the percentage of hams who got on for the contest:

Illinois showed greater interest than New York
Arizona showed greater interest than Georgia

The top five in order (by percentage) were NH, RI, DE, NJ followed by 
MINNESOTA

Measured by actual number of stations on the air:

California had more hams on for the contest than any other state
Florida was #2
Texas was #3

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Interesting that more people in 5th-ranked Minnesota got on for the CQWW 
than people in Connecticut, whether you measure it by percentage OR 
number of operators.  Conclusion: Hams in Minnesota are more easily 
turned on than hams in Connecticut.

Data follows.  If you want to sort the columns yourself click this link 
to download this simple spreadsheet:

http://www.n5ot.com/CQWW/2020-CQWW-Interest-Analysis-Data.xlsx

73 - Mark N5OT
P.S. My work here is finished


Data for 2021 CQWW Phone 	
STATE 	NUMBER OF STATIONS THAT GOT ON FOR THE CONTEST 	NUMBER OF 
GENERAL, ADVANCED AND EXTRA-CLASS LICENSEES 	PERCENTAGE OF GENERAL, 
ADVANCED AND EXTRA-CLASS LICENSEES WHO GOT ON FOR THE CONTEST
AK 	1 	1567 	0.06%
AL 	116 	6128 	1.89%
AR 	67 	3790 	1.77%
AZ 	238 	10100 	2.36%
CA 	758 	42789 	1.77%
CO 	160 	7408 	2.16%
CT 	129 	4313 	2.99%
DE 	31 	938 	3.30%
FL 	510 	27702 	1.84%
GA 	204 	8844 	2.31%
IA 	72 	3888 	1.85%
ID 	55 	2821 	1.95%
IL 	326 	11904 	2.74%
IN 	168 	8167 	2.06%
KS 	57 	3841 	1.48%
KY 	96 	4651 	2.06%
LA 	61 	3699 	1.65%
MA 	229 	7881 	2.91%
MD 	178 	6080 	2.93%
ME 	66 	2692 	2.45%
MI 	236 	11640 	2.03%
MN 	183 	6094 	3.00%
MO 	132 	7418 	1.78%
MS 	51 	2737 	1.86%
MT 	31 	1750 	1.77%
NC 	267 	11082 	2.41%
ND 	16 	803 	1.99%
NE 	35 	2266 	1.54%
NH 	105 	2887 	3.64%
NJ 	267 	8308 	3.21%
NM 	46 	2971 	1.55%
NV 	62 	3260 	1.90%
NY 	433 	16165 	2.68%
OH 	332 	15913 	2.09%
OK 	77 	4755 	1.62%
OR 	163 	7964 	2.05%
PA 	415 	14019 	2.96%
RI 	43 	1200 	3.58%
SC 	120 	4909 	2.44%
SD 	19 	1157 	1.64%
TN 	190 	8931 	2.13%
TX 	457 	24796 	1.84%
UT 	68 	3608 	1.88%
VA 	285 	9949 	2.86%
VT 	24 	1153 	2.08%
WA 	271 	13120 	2.07%
WI 	184 	6200 	2.97%
WV 	66 	2967 	2.22%
WY 	22 	923 	2.38%
Grand Total 	8122 	368148 	2.21%