[VHFcontesting] Distance scoring, including some comments on EME

[James Duffey]

Seven years ago, a number of VHF/UHF contesters got together to form a Distance Scoring Working group. The purpose was to study various ways of implementing distance scoring in a  VHF/UHF contest. The group, lead by W9GKA, generated a report detailing the varying scoring methods and rules. In conjunction with the report, several simulations were done on actual logs to see how the various techniques worked. The report is rather lengthy, but is worth skimming through as it answers a lot of questions on distance scoring. The study is available here:

< http://old.w9smc.com/SMC%20VHF/DistanceScoringReport.v3.1.pdf >

Leaf through it and you will learn more than you ever wanted to about distance scoring. The report does include an appendix on calculating distances based on the grid-6.

The report considered EME QSOes with respect to scoring. EME distorts the distance scoring if a straight points per unit distance formula is used. Several things were proposed and studied to ameliorate this distortion. One was to cap the distance over which distance points could be awarded. This distance would be about the maximum distance of typical propagation. An alternate was to use a sliding scale where a point per unit distance would be given up to a maximum and then the point per unit distance would drop. K5QE, a member of the group, suggested a point per kM out to 1200kM and then a tenth of a point per unit distance after that. A slightly modified proposal was to give a point per unit distance out to the specified distance, say 1200kM and then award  a straight 1200 additional points for QSOes beyond that distance. Another suggestion was to outlaw EME in the normal categories and have an unlimited category where anything goes, including EME. 

I am not sure why the committee did not include these possibilities, or even if they looked at the group’s report. The bottom line is that EME does distort distance scoring, but it can be dealt with.  

The group also looked at the weighting of various bands. They concluded that a 1:10 weighting from 50 MHz to 10GHz kept band to band and total scores with the distance scoring method similar to band to band and total points with the current system. That would correspond to a 3:10 weighting for 222MHz to 10GHz. In contrast, the UHF contest draft proposal from the committee has a 1:20 weighting (it is called band factor in the proposal) from 222MHz to 10GHz. I am not sure what is reasonable, but I think the proposed band factors are too high. 

As usual, make your concerns and suggestions about the draft UHF contest rules known to the committee. - Duffey KK6MC
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KK6MC
James Duffey
Cedar Crest NM