There are few contests that use this format and they are all small and will
remain small. The only contest that comes to mind that currently uses this
format is the SARTG and it's, can I politely say, NOT a big contest, even
in the RTTY world.
Why is this?
It's because SERIOUS contesters dont like the format, and if you cant
attract at least some of them to operate full time, a contest will never
"succeed". I'd rather operate a solid 24 hours than tie up my whole
weekend to work 24. In addition, no one wants to go to all the time and
expense of a "contest DXpedition" to operate this way, and for only 24
hours. I think history has shown that the most grueling contests with the
most equitable scoring worldwide , are the ones that do the best. CQWW DX
is obviously the biggest contest of the year by far, and it's a
no-holds-barred, 48 hour marathon. It has always catered to the most
serious contesters: the ones willing to commit the time, money, and energy
to put forth a maximum score. DXpeditions are encouraged by the 48 hour
format plus the inclusion in club score (notice that ARRL recently followed
suit!).
If you want a short contest that requires minimal hardware to be
competitive, do the NAQP, ARRL SS, the various Sprints, or start your own
regional contest. These contests are loads of fun and dont require massive
antenna farms to be completely competitive.
If CQ intends WPX to remain at least a semi-large DX contest, they must
leave the operating time at a large percentage of 48 hours. Otherwise the
relatively few serious operations that exist today will not be there
tomorrow.
73, Tyler K3MM (WP3X MM op.)
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