[CQ-Contest] QSO Party Rules

[Jim Brown]

On 9/19/2022 6:43 PM, Ron Notarius W3WN via CQ-Contest wrote:
> The primary concern originally raised was that the rules for selected State QSO Parties are written to unfairly influence mobiles to not operate enough if at all on the high bands.
> 
> One of the contests in the list of perpetrators was the Pa QSO Party.
> 
> I’m very curious as to exactly which “mobile influencing” rules in the event make it suspect.  Because I don’t see any.

I suspect that may be because you don't work state QSO parties.

Stated in my initial post -- the problem is that in-state stations get 
multipliers for in-state counties.

The way most of these parties work, mobiles get another mult for each 
state they work for each county from which they work them. If a mobile 
works me from 20 counties on 2 bands, we each get 40 mults; if he works 
KA6BIM (in OR) from 25 counties on 2 bands, they both get another 50 
mults. And so on.

An important part of contesting is station building and optimization. 
 From CA, I can work the best equipped mobiles on 80 in states like TX 
because both of us have worked hard on antennas. Ditto for 40 during the 
day.

And the goal is not "fairness," it is to improve the contest by making 
it more fun for out-of-state stations, thus giving in-state stations 
more stations to work. As Duffey said quite well, you alternate between 
bands that are open each time you hit a new county. W0BH did a masterful 
job of this in a GAQP several years ago, hitting a huge number of 
counties, a multi-op, I think, both CW and SSB. When 40 was productive, 
he'd hit 20 for 5-15 minutes, then head down to 40.

Good out of state ops keep checking the operating frequencies (and 
spots) of the various mobiles running between counties, and are ready to 
pounce when they hit a new county. That's the fun of these contests. Few 
mobiles, not a lot of fun.

In CQP, for example, 58 mults for in-state stations are States and 
Provinces, 58 mults for out-of state stations are CA counties, and 
everyone can work everyone. Not a lot of mobiles here -- the counties 
are far too large, so we work hard to have all counties covered by fixed 
or portable stations.

73, Jim K9YC