[VHFcontesting] Categories [was: The Psychology of Contest Participation]

[Ev Tupis]

--- On Sun, 2/15/09, Shupienis, Joseph <jshupienis at ccac.edu> wrote:

> Human nature being what it is, most normal people prefer
> to, in street parlance, "Pick on somebody their own
> size."
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I agree, Joe.  So...how to properly categorize?

The most influencing parameters of a VHF contest operation are (in no particular order):

1. ERP (not RF output)
2. Operator-Operating time (man-hours of actual operation, which translates well into the multi-op category, too)
3. Number of bands activated (in multi-band events that score bands by "weight"...2m=1pt, 222MHz=2pts, etc.)

If these factors were the basis of categorization, and they were to be broken by geographic region, we have the makings of a correctly aligned entry-classification system.

Alas, these concepts are foreign to today's constellation of VHF contests.

Ev, W2EV