[CQ-Contest] QSO Party Rules

[Ron Notarius W3WN]

The problem is, however, that for stations in the "home" QSO parties to work the high bands... and I agree that's important... there also have to be stations for THEM to work.  Otherwise it is a lot of wasted time calling CQ with no responses.
I've run the Pa QSO party more times than I care to think about, going back to my days as a college freshman -- as a member of a club operation (including a multi-county/multi-station bonus effort), home op, portable, and mobile.  I can tell you from experience that working or trying to work stations on 20 - 10 can sometimes be a lot of effort for minimal gain.  Especially on 20, when the band is crowded, finding a "hole" can be it's own challenge, and the anti-contest yahoos jump in to give you a hard time, just because.  (And heaven forbid you accidentally stumble on or near a cherished "net" frequency, even if it isn't currently in use)
So of course the mobiles are going to concentrate on the low bands, where there's lots of activity.  Especially on those that are only capable of running a single hamstick or equivalent at a time.  
This isn't really, or at least always, a question about "rules" for mobiles/rovers/portable stations.  It's an acknowledgement of the classic bootstrap, or if you will, chicken-or-the-egg, conundrum.  How do you encourage more activity from both ends of the effort on the high bands?
Boycotting a given contest because of a perception that mobiles/rovers/portables are somehow granted a "point" advantage to NOT work more multipliers seems counter-intuitive to that encouragement.

A problem or potential problem has been brought up, thus this email chain.  The simple question remains:  What do we do about it?  
73, ron w3wn

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Brown <k9yc at audiosystemsgroup.com>
To: cq-contest at contesting.com
Sent: Mon, Sep 19, 2022 8:42 am
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] QSO Party Rules

On 9/18/2022 4:54 AM, Pete Smith N4ZR wrote:
> Nonetheless, I have to wonder why anyone would boycott a particular QSO 
> party because of its rules.

It matters whether the "home" QSO parties are there to work on the bands 
where distant participants can work them. It's no fun to work a QSO 
party when you can't hear the guys you're trying to work, which causes 
you not bother with those parties. Many of us LOVE state QSO parties 
WHEN we can work them, and the serious in-state participants need us as 
mults, just as they need US as mults.

Contests are about competition, and if I can't work mults, I'm not 
competitive, and it's no fun. Many of us ENJOY tracking mobiles through 
dozens of counties. That's an important part of the better QSO parties.

The guys who coordinate and participate in CQP work very hard to make 
sure that all CA counties are workable from all of NA. Our CQP team 
activates one or more CA counties with serious multi-setup portable 
operations, and we've activated 5-6 rare NV or UT counties for 7QP with 
stations that are easily workable on the two or three bands with prop to 
all of NA. Our goal is to make working CQP and 7QP fun for out of state 
participants throughout NA. and even EU. There are EU stations who take 
these contests seriously, all because we don't sit on 40M and work 
locals for in-state mults.

Scoring rules MATTER -- they establish the nature of the contest, who 
can have fun because they are competitive, who can't. QSO parties are 
more fun for both in-state/region participants if they have more 
stations to work, and stations that need the higher bands to work them 
will water their lawns when they can't.

73, Jim K9YC
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