[VHFcontesting] Distance based scoring

[Bill Olson]

Hi all, I don't actually see what we buy with distance scoring. Could 
someone fill me in there?? I know it is intrinsically "more fair", That is 
to say, reward is given to "more distant" qso's. But does this change 
anything really? It won't make the more modest stations compete better with 
the larger stations, because the bigger stations will benefit too. I can 
only see a benefit to a very modest station with a range of 20-50 miles or 
so who operates from the center of a grid as opposed to a station on a grid 
corner let's say. This benefit certainly doesn't seem worth making the rules 
so much more complicated except on the higher microwave bands.

When the ARRL went from ARRL sections to Maidenhead grid locators in the VHF 
contests there was a noticeable complaint from the "BIG" stations "back 
East" who felt they were going to lose an advantage. And that change really 
did affect scores because the sections out west are so BIG. But I think the 
change really only HELPED the big stations back east in the long run. My 
point in bringing this up is that if folks think "distance scoring" will 
improve their ability to compete, I disagree.

I don't see that distance scoring, at least on the bands below, say, 10gHz, 
really changes anything, since everyone is ALREADY playing by the same 
rules. It might make the actual score numbers bigger, but so what?

Maybe I'm missing something here. That wouldn't be unusual!

bill, K1DY FN54 Maine





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