Topband: ARRL 160 Contest Scoring

[steve.root at culligan4water.com]

In the last decade I've operated this contest 6 or 7 times and in the process I've set the Minnesota section record several times. I mention that to establish that these were very serious efforts on my part. In total, I've made almost 5200 QSO's in that time. Of those 5200 QSO's I've had Europeans answer my CQ three times...YU1LA, SV3RF, and DF2PY. That's .056%. How many answers from Europeans do you think I would have gotten if I lived in New Hampshire or Georgia or Texas? That's the problem with the ARRL contest scoring. A limited section of the country has access to a large pool of QSO's and multipliers that we can't reach. And to really rub your face in it, they award 5 points for those DX QSO's as well. 

I did discuss this issue with my ARRL section Director. He tried to get this on the table for discussion at the CAC but met serious entrenched resistance to the idea.

Once again, the only rational way to look at contest results is to compare you score to others in your local area and nowhere else. 

73 Steve K0SR