A thought occurred to me today while pondering WPX CW and if I would bother
with it this year. I haven't given this post a lot of deep consideration as
is likely evident to you. Bear with me please.
In past years, I've passed it up WPX CW for various reasons. Usually the
noise from spring storms tends to drive me off the low bands where I
particularly like to contest. The late date for the CW section of this
contest seems to coincide with some nasty QRN here in Michigan. Spring also
brings the usual lawn care chores about the same time. I find myself taking
down the temporary antennas and rolling up the extra radials etc. to make
way for the lawn tractor. Shortly, I'll be doing all this lawn stuff again,
very soon.
Ok, I know some of you are already bored with this. I'll get to the point(s).
I suggest the SSB and CW sections of the CQWW WPX contest be combined, as
in the ARRL 10M contest.
Scoring for this new combined mode event, like the ARRL 10M contest, should
be weighted to favor CW (my bias showing?) with prefix mults counting once
for each mode. Twice as many mults! Low band qso's also to be worth more too.
Oh, the date? Same as present SSB section. Maybe even earlier on the
contest calender but I don't see an open date!
As long as were at it, offer a multi-op LOW power category so multi-op
stations don't have to run monster amps and disturb the whole neighborhood
just to have fun. This would be a great way to get more participation. Lets
face it, not everyone that wants to multi-op can assemble an effective QRO
multi-op and do it TVI free.
It would be nice to have a part-time category, say 24 hrs. maximum which
would make it more likely I and other old far*s would enter the event. I
think I'm not alone in this. If the full bore contest occupied 48hrs, then
half or even a quarter of that could be the "part time" entry. Casual
operators would be more likely to stick around for more than a couple hours
of S&P or whatever if they had a chance in the time limited category and
competed with similarly time challenged contesters. Makes sense to me.
Several past CW events came and went without my participation because
Mother Nature apparently decided my antennas didn't deserve to survive the
entire winter. Not much sense entering an all band event without all the
hardware in place. By the time the CW event is held my antenna farm is
usually in need of some repair and the WX this far north is not optimum for
antenna projects in late winter or early spring. It must be nice to live in
4-land this time of year...
Oh, most important. I figure anyone entering and winning should actually
get a certificate or plaque or whatever in a consistent and timely manner!
I also suggest the new format be called the CQWW WPX Championship. New
century, new contest.
Or not...What say you all?
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