[SECC] SS Club Competition - Going for the Gavel

[Bill Coleman]

I've spent some time looking at some statistics of the Medium  
category for the SS Affiliated Club Competition. You do realise that  
the SECC took second place to the Southern California Contest Club,  
by less than 12% difference in score, don't you?

And they did it with one additional log -- 35 submitted to our 34.

I think there's a good chance we can win the Medium category in SS.

I pulled some numbers from the web site for last year's results, and  
found a few interesting things:

1) More than 1/3 of our club score came from three people: K4BAI,  
N4PN and N4LR, who put in full-time efforts in both modes.

2) 52% of the operator hours were spent on CW, whereas Phone provided  
54.2% of our score.

3) A few guys that submitted scores for both CW and Phone were very  
lopsided in their results: N4GG, K4TD, W4ATL and K4LW had only 10-20%  
of their points on Phone, whereas KT4Q and AA4LR submitted less than  
1% of their results using CW. Most of this was due to differences in  
time spent. (eg I did all 24 in Phone, but only 1 hour in CW)

--

So, I'm thinking about ways we could improve our score by 12% or  
more, perhaps targeting 4 million points. I think the club can do it,  
but there's a couple of principles that need to be applied.

1) Our club is based on the idea of promoting contest operation -- so  
anything that inhibits someone from operating doesn't sound like a  
good idea. (eg "Gee, Bill, why don't you skip SS CW and let someone  
else submit a better score in that slot?")

2) I like the idea of inclusiveness of the club, so even a newbie  
should feel like his effort counts for something. So, we shouldn't do  
anything to denegrate anyone's efforts (eg "Gee, Bill, 242 pts in 1  
hour of working CW is pretty darn bad -- maybe you should submit that  
score for the Southeaster DX Club....")

--

With that in mind, here's some ideas:

1) More scores. We had 22 members submit scores for SS, with a total  
of 34 logs submitted. That means we have room for 16 more logs and  
still stay in the Medium category. We need to have more people get  
on, and operate in SS and submit their logs.

2) More points. I'm sure everyone is out to make the most points they  
can, in the time they have. Some people turned in impressive scores  
with big efforts. But even the little guys can contribute something  
significant. There may be ways to make more points. For example, this  
year, I know I can only work CW part-time. So, I might as well turn  
on the amp and maybe put myself in the Unlimited category to beef up  
my score.

3) More hours. I'm also sure everyone spends as much time as they can  
contesting. Fall is so tough with 6 major contests in the space of  
7-8 weeks. Not everyone can go full-time. But, if you plan on  
submitting a score, perhaps you can try to work as many hours as you  
can. I know I plan to put in quite a few more hours in CW than the  
measly 1 I did last year.

Whose up for SS this year? I'll be FT in Phone, and PT in CW.


Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr at arrl.net
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
             -- Wilbur Wright, 1901