Topband: Propagation last evening

[Jim Brown]

On 2/25/2012 12:03 PM, Sam Morgan wrote:
> I will not be wasting my time in any 160m SSB contests
> either you can't be heard unless you run a kw
> or ssb ops aren't listening for anything down in the weeds
> that isn't received on a beverage pointed away from the US
> or doesn't have an exotic call sign

It's not much better on CW, which is why I no longer bother with 160M 
contests.

It's long past time for scoring rules changes that cause east coast 
stations to want to work something besides DX.  The excessive credit for 
DX QSOs and countries as multipliers simply does not make sense.  EU 
from most of the east coast is only about 25% greater distance than W6, 
yet the W1--W6 or W1-W7 QSO counts one point and the EU QSO counts three 
or five, depending on the contest.

The only 160M contest with reasonable scoring rules is the Stew Perry, 
but there's not nearly enough activity to make it much fun. Is it 
because the east coast guys don't like anything without their 5:1 
scoring advantage?

73, Jim K9YC