W4AN wrote:
<The proposal laid out by W4ZV means that the contest doesn't start for us
on the east coast until 2 hours after sunset (8 hours for Europeans) and
it means that we now have to operate single band contest 3 nights instead
of just two. The Europeans would operate 1/2 night on Saturday morning,
Full night Saturday night, and 1/2 night on Sunday.
FYI this is not my proposal...it is the CQ 160 Committee's decision
from page 32 of the December CQ. I believe their thinking is to make this
contest consistent with other worldwide contests. 48 hours is a good move
because it allows everyone worldwide the same number of darkness hours
(latitude differences excepted). This has been especially requested by
guys in the Pacific which has little activity currently but I am sure there
is no 48 hour period that does not inconvenience someone somewhere in the
world. "You can please some of the people some of the time but you can't
please all of the people all of the time".
If the contest participation remains unlimited at 48 hours, this
indeed would be a very bad move. However, recall that the vast majority of
opinions on the Contesting.com survey last Spring was to limit contest
participation to 30 hours. Be sure to send your comments with your logs
as suggested by CQ or to Dave K4JRB at thompson@mindspring.com
73, Bill W4ZV
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