[UK-CONTEST] G0TZZ queries

[Peter Bowyer]

On 24 January 2011 16:19, Chris Rolinson G7DDN <g7ddn at g7ddn.com> wrote:
> Peter, I am surprised you dismiss my suggestions as "totally daft".  I cannot forsee many situations where well-equipped stations would s&p!

If you offer a new section that appears easy for a station to win,
there's a good chance they'll enter it. That, after all, is why
sections are offered - to give people a choice, and straightforward
competitive nature means people prefer a section they're likely to
win.

Any proposed change of rules needs to take into account any change of
behaviour it might encourage from existing entrants.

> Your comments about "a science bordering on alchemy" seem overblown to me.  When no-one answers your CQs, it is not rocket science (if I may be permitted to mix a metaphor) to realise it may > be time to change strategy!  Sometimes I feel we are guilty of making the hobby more complicated than it perhaps really is!

If you don't think it's complicated then you don't understand the
problem. The IOTA single-op mixed-mode entrants will tell you how
vital it is to get band changes, mode changes and run/s&p changes
right.

> Finally, if, as you intimate, one is to simply work everyone else by the end of the contest, then surely that is totally self-defeating - we might all as well give in now.  Of course, that doesn't happen - > and that is part of the fun of contesting.

Not everybody works everybody, clearly - but everybody has a chance of
working everybody, since working everybody is what every station is
trying to achieve. The station who comes closest will win. Sticking to
one strategy (run vs S&P) doesn't achieve this (self-evidently), so
the correct mix of the 2 is required.

>
> Robert, thank you for your constructive reply and positive stories.  It would be good to hear more like this on this forum.  I fear you may have misunderstood my point with regard to a Foundation-style > contest in that I was merely suggesting that M6 & M3 stations only be permitted to run.  Those of us with bigger stations would queue up to work THEM if you get my drift.

How many will bother? If you want to put on a contest which gives out
certificates for turning up, go ahead - but it's not a particularly
useful introduction to real contesting, where you have to work hard to
improve your performance before getting awards for it.

> Peter, your second reply seems to put the onus on people to go find a contesting group - all of which presupposes people know what contesting is about in order to join such a group.  My experience > is that people tend to like to taste something and see if they like it before they actively go in search of a contest group.  Personally I have never been in a contesting group but I still enjoy contesting - > and I like helping newcomers to see what it is about too.

Sorry, but if you've never been in a contest group, how many of these
people are there in your sample? Don't knock it if you haven't tried
it, Contesting isn't just about single ops, and many single ops get a
lot of their 'training' in groups. Cpntest groups are not that hard to
find, you know....

>
> I will not reply further to the group, as this seems to have stirred up more than intended and I think I have made my points.

Why not? That's a bit like walking into a bar, yelling 'you're doing
it all wrong' and walking out again without allowing further
discussion. A bit on the rude side....

Peter G4MJS