Let's get back to the simple suggestion most recently made by K2AV (with my
enthusiastic second):
Simply give people the reasonable opportunity to use a second (or more)
call later in the contest, with minimal limits to prevent manufactured contact
abuse (A problem more in theory than in practice. See the CQ contests
where multiple calls are permitted). Forbidding the use of a previous call
after use of a new one begins would be sufficient.
No need to establish new categories to do so. Some side bet type of
action without involving the ARRL Contest Desk is fine, but not necessary. I've
had a competition (pretty much with myself) over the years to see if the sum
of my four scores (from separate physical locations) will beat the score
of the overall high scorer. Some years I win, some years I don't.
SS, especially the CW SS, is presented as an endurance contest where one
struggles to scrape out every last possible qso on Sunday. I consider this a
bug, not a feature, of SS. But the contest is still sufficiently popular
that being a new station in the later hours makes it into a rate contest.
That combined with the challenge of working a clean sweep (or close to it) in
a relatively few hours makes Sunday SS with a fresh call a lot of fun.
All this will take is for the ARRL to drop General Rules 3.3 and 3.5.
73 - Jim K8MR
In a message dated 2/10/2013 1:50:52 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
n4zr@contesting.com writes:
No, but there *might* be a correlation if limited-time competition
categories were offered, perhaps focused on Sunday operating periods. A
"6-hour Sunday" class might add some activity in the dead zone,
particularly as the age of SS participants continues to rise.
73, Pete N4ZR
On 2/9/2013 8:59 PM, W0MU Mike Fatchett wrote:
We seemed to have gotten well off the original topic which was a
substantial drop in participation in the contest and what things we
could do to get more people to participate.
Sunday afternoon, lack of rate was mentioned as reason that
discouraged some.
I am not sure if there is any correlation between changing the length
of the contest and increasing participation.
Mike W0MU
On 2/9/2013 9:14 AM, Zack Widup wrote:
If you don't want to operate during the full length of the contest,
what does it matter what the actual length of the contest is? If you
only want to operate on Saturday, then do just that, etc.
If you are in it mostly for fun (like I usually am), then you operate
when you wish. If you want to be competitive, you'd do whatever it
takes to be competitive if that means operating the maximum time
allowed by the rules.
73, Zack W9SZ
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