WPX Time Limits
I've never been much of a WPX fan (pre-CT, figuring out your score was worse
than using income averaging on your tax return, and any contest that is
scheduled over Memorial Day weekend is obviously not serious,) but I have
noticed that a lot of "non-contesters" participate in WPX - even to the
extent of going on small DXpeditions. Since it already has limited
operating time, I think the WPX should experiment with shorter or more
varied operating times to see if activity increases or decreases.
There are already 4 "real" contests and they should be left at 48 hours. but if
in twenty years contesting is reduced to a few hundred 65 year old guys working
each other on 6 bands, we might regret our inflexibility. More categories in
what I consider a "non-primetime" contest might lure some more casual
contesters to enter the real DX contests, SS, etc.
I'd go even further than Eric, and have four 12 hour segments, plus the
exisiting 36 hour category. It won't lower activity at night, since the casual
operators weren't going to stay up all night anyway. Twenty four hours is still
a pretty big investment for Joe fledging-contester-with-a-wife-and-baby.
Twelve hours is not much more than going to see a football game.
You can always change back. The contest rules weren't handed down on a tablet
from Marconi, Morse, or Kenwood.
John WB2EKK
|