Topband: ARRL 160 Contest Scoring

[Joe Subich, W4TV]

Steve, 

That's the entire issue ... ARRL 160 is a 160 Sweepstakes 
and should be scored that way.  DX countries should not be 
multipliers and DX QSOs should not count. 

I won ARRL 160 Single Op from Ohio (AD8I) in 1982; as far 
as I know that's the only time someone has done it from 
that far west.  It was a very strange year ... New England 
had a massive thunderstorm and nobody could hear anything. 
I spent most of my time listening on a short beverage to 
the west as the NE beverage was noisy.  Of my very few DX 
contacts, I even told DL1YD to "QRX" while I worked a W0 
because all I heard was "1YD" and thought he was in New 
England or VE1 <G>!  

I doubt that eliminating multiplier/QSO credit for DX would 
allow someone in W6, KP4 or Florida to ever win ARRL 160 
but it would open it up to all of the guys in W3, W4, W5, 
W8, W9 and W0 or VE3 that just don't have a chance under 
the current rules. 

73, 

   ... Joe, W4TV 
  
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: topband-bounces at contesting.com 
> [mailto:topband-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of 
> steve.root at culligan4water.com
> Sent: Saturday, October 31, 2009 8:21 AM
> To: topband at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: Topband: ARRL 160 Contest Scoring
> 
> 
> 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
> 
> _______________________________________________
> 160 meters is a serious band, it should be treated with 
> respect. - TF4M