I disagree with the assertion that the two point rule was created from a
flat playing field merely to encourage activity in the Caribbean.
Having been following the news around that time, I can say that without
the 2 point rule there would be a score disparity between operations
from Caribbean islands and nearby Northern South America. That
disparity certainly would discourage contesting from the many Caribbean
countries, making the contests much less interesting for all over the
world.
Now, I'm not here to try to say that the rules of the contest are fair
to all. The truth is quite the reverse. But I don't think that taking
away the 2 point rule is as good a solution as expanding it. My
suggestion would be closer to making all
country-to-outside-country-contacts one point and do away with the
continent to continent bonus entirely.
It would certainly be more fair for everyone to define their locale by
coordinates and calculate contact points based on miles. Then allow
contacts inside ones country based on mileage.
Next, rework multipliers. US States, Canadian Provinces, major Japanese
islands -- though these may not be separate countries I have little
understanding why in a DX contest there is a need to make the country
the definition of a multiplier, especially where zones have been used as
multipliers and they are senseless. The only reason for using zones as
multipliers was that CQ magazine wanted to imply a sense of importance
to their silly WAZ award.
Don't get me wrong -- I have immense respect for some things that have
been accomplished relating to CQ Zones, such as Dick Norton's quest to
operate the CQWW from each zone. It's just that now that there's a
European Union I fail to understand why US States aren't as important as
European Union "countries" to determining contest scores. Europe is
just one big country now -- but the scoring continues to follow some
antiquated concept of what DX is.
So if you want to make contests more interesting, please do so. Don't
limit the discussion to a choice between "should there be a 2 point rule
for NA to NA contacts or should there not be". Instead, work toward
some more meaningful advance in the rules.
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