[VHFcontesting] Initial Status Report, VHF Distance Scoring Working Group

[kevin kaufhold]

To let everyone know of the status of the distance scoring group, a user’s group was formed in February, 2009 to study distance scoring concepts in VHF contests.  Over 40 people have become members of the group. This has been a grass-roots effort and is meant to be a stand-alone, independent attempt at forging a consensus recommendation on the subject. Much work has already been done within the group. The user’s group can be found at: 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VHFDistanceScoring/. 

A status report of the group’s activities can be found at

http://www.w9smc.com/SMC%20VHF/DistanceScoringReportInitial.pdf  

Please feel free to look through this initial report. Very briefly, strong support currently exists within the working group for using points per km scoring calculations in distance events. Some support also exists for several other methods, including km zones, concentric grid rings, and combination events using both distance scoring and grids.  More complete details can be found in the report. 

Several issues are still under discussion. Rather than an agreement occurring on one particular distance method, a variety of options may be emerging from the discussions. Hopefully at some point, recommendations will ultimately be made from the working group to the broader VHF community for further consideration. 

A baseline set of distance rules, along with alternate concepts, are currently being tested through simulations. Log data will be collected on the upcoming June, 2009 contest so that we can test the baseline and alternate proposals using a large number of logs submitted from this one contest.  Data from a June event is ideal to test whether long distance QSO’s on 6 and 2 meters may be able to overwhelm distance calculations on other bands.  

If you have any questions or comments regarding distance-based efforts or would like to add something of interest to the Initial Report, please drop by the distance scoring working group at the above URL, or feel free to contact me directly. 

Additionally, if you can volunteer your June, 2009 log, it will be added to a data base used for the evaluation of various distance proposals under consideration.  Your June, 2009 log data, along with an indication of your 6 digit locator, would be greatly appreciated.  


Kevin 
W9GKA
moderator 
VHF Distance Scoring Group