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Re: [CQ-Contest] How many hours do SOAB entrants actually operate?

To: cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] How many hours do SOAB entrants actually operate?
From: David Gilbert <xdavid@cis-broadband.com>
Date: Sun, 31 Mar 2013 12:18:42 -0700
List-post: <cq-contest@contesting.com">mailto:cq-contest@contesting.com>

Why would all the 24 hour guys work the first 24 hours of the contest? That doesn't make any sense at all. Much more likely is that they would try to pick hours that optimized propagation for contacts and multipliers, and that would be different for every operator because of different QTHs ... especially when you take into account different band preferences.

It seems to me that a 24 hour category would essentially replace potentially unhealthy (fatigue, circulation, cycle disruption, etc) butt-in-the-chair boredom with additional degrees of freedom from a strategy point of view. Particpants would have to choose their hours carefully to maximize rate and multipliers taking into account both propagation and prime time hours on the other end (which don't necessarily overlap depending upon the band). They'd have the opportunity to tailor their hours to wring the most out of the capabilities of their antennas (not everyone has cannons on every band), and they'd have the opportunity to work in sleep periods that would allow them to chase key multipliers during hours they might normally not operate.

It seems to me that a 48 hour contest where fully 90% of the participants operate less than half that time is not really a 48 hour contest anyway. In any case, for the great majority it isn't a test of skill ... it's a test of endurance. Those are two radically different things. Adding a 24 hour category would simply recognize that fact, and it would only be necessary to add it for SOAB and SOAB(A) since almost by definition the single-band and multi-op entries don't really need it.

Based upon the data I could easily foresee that the 24 hour categories would become the most popular by far .... so how does that become a bad idea??

73,
Dave   AB7E



On 3/30/2013 6:35 PM, Tom Osborne wrote:



But, what if all the 24 hour guys operate the first 24 and then quit?  That
would make for a boring weekend for the 48 hour guys.  73
Tom W7WHY




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