[VHFcontesting] Distance Scoring for Contests

[jcplatt1 at mmm.com]

Like N9DG, I too spent a few minutes looking at the reference website and
learned a few things.  I'm very interested in reading the response to
Duane's questions.

I learned that one key to the distance scoring is that all scores are
normalized on a band-by-band basis following the contest by whomever
collects the logs (ex: ARRL, CQ, etc).   The denominator used in this
normalization is the score from whomever had the highest accumulated
distance points for that band.  For example, if I worked a total of 4,000
accumulated distance points on 6m ( 1 point per mile or per km like the 10
GHz Contest or Stew Perry, etc), and my log had the highest of all 6m
accumulated distance points, 4,000 then becomes the denominator for
normalizing everyone else's 6m score.   All normalized score are multiplied
by 1,000 for their final normalized band score.    So in this example, my
6m score would be (4000/4000) * 1000 = 1,000 points.   If another station,
say W0AA, works a total of 2,000 accumulated distance points on 6m, their
6m score would be (2000/4000) * 1000 = 500 points.  What that means is that
the "winner" of each band gets 1,000 points and all other 6m scores are
normalized to his and will be something less than 1,000.   This process is
carried forward individually for each band (2, 222, 432, etc), and then
each normalized band score is summed for a final score.   If someone was
running 6, 2, 222, and 432 and had the highest accumulated distance scores
compared to everyone else on all four bands, they would receive the 1,000
points for each band for a total score of 4,000 points.   I believe they
treat 10 GHz and up as one band.   Do I have this right ?

At first blush, this seems to do a good job of addressing how to add
different bands together into one combined score.   Yes, lots of questions
still ahead about grids squares, does Joe-706 know his grid square, and
multipliers and stuff, but this basic concept does peek my interest.

73, Jon
W0ZQ