A run of 6-8 would require you to sign 2 or 3 times a minute. You say you
sign 1-2 times a minute anyway. In essence, you are signing one more
time. KQ2M takes a second to say. But lets's face it, we big guns in the US
don't have an hour of that kind of run. Even from KH6, my best hour was
only 360.
We need to look at this through the eyes of the little guys who S/P not
just us big guns.
Bill K4XS
In a message dated 2/2/2014 7:34:30 P.M. Coordinated Universal Time,
kq2m@kq2m.com writes:
ID every 3 q’s?
BAD IDEA!
I am sure that the intention of rule “meant well” but the practical as
well as
unintended consequences will wind up hurting most participants.
In short, this new rule penalizes the GOOD op. and rewards the POOR op.!
Example: Let’s say that I am having a great run at 6-8 q’s per minute.
Normally I don’t ID more than once or twice per minute when going at top
rates
because I am trying to MINIMIZE the size of the pileup. Why would I do
that?
Because a larger pileup with more callers only slows down the rate per
minute
for myself and everyone calling me. Good ops know this.
Under the new rule I would be ID’ing every 20 – 30 seconds. Should that
really be a requirement? Are people so impatient that it is critical
to ID in that tiny space of time?
It is NOT the sending of KQ2M that meaningfully slows down the rates, it
is
the issue of dealing with an unruly pileup of loud stations calling on the
exact
same freq. When you send your call MORE often, you get MORE
callers, adding to the chaos and QRM and slowing down the rate even more
for BOTH you AND the callers! Is this a good thing? NO, It is definitely
not!
So, under this new rule, I as a good opr at my best rate might have to ID
every 20 – 30 seconds.
Now let’s contrast this to the inexperienced opr. or a poor opr.
who has a pileup and can’t seem to copy a call. They take maybe
1 – 2 minutes per qso. Under this rule the opr. is now required to ID
only every 3 – 6 minutes! Is this disparity in ID’ing helpful? Does it
even make sense?
Aren’t the rules supposed to be the same for everyone?
Regarding the practical aspects, how many people are going to remember to
count every three qso’s?
After you have been up for 36 hours and are operating 2 radios, is someone
really going to remember this? What if they miscount? What if they are
alternating
cq’s on 2 bands? Do you ID every three qso’s per band or every three qso’
s?
There are lots of important new rules that can be created for any contest,
but the point
is to improve the contest without harming it in other ways, and that can
only be accomplished
by enacting a new rule that is easy to keep track of and adhere to, and is
fair to all.
This new rule requiring an ID of every 3-qso’s will cause lots of chaos
and hurt most participants.
That hurts the contest, the opposite of what is intended.
With more frequent ID’s making the pileups bigger and more unruly for rare
stations
(just imagine how many more times rare stations will be spotted and
mis-spotted!),
the other ops will be be spending more time calling IN pileups and less
time actually working
stations. I’ll bet the result is fewer contacts for many and more
frustration, although there will
be no way to actually measure this. Given the endless calling in pileups
that is affecting
all of us now, I don’t see how adding still more unruly callers to a
pileup is a net plus for anyone.
This is similar to what happens when the IRS creates new tax rules. There
is a problem that
they want to address and the “solution” in the form of rules often
is made by the people who are only modestly familiar with the problem and
the difficulties that administering the “chosen” solution will cause. So
the end result is new and
unintended consequences that create other new and often big problems,
which is PRECISELY
what will happen here.
Yes, lack of ID’ing in contests is a big problem and really out of hand,
especially
among the POOR ops – NOT the good ones! This new rule will penalize
good ops (who usualluy exercise good judgment) by imposition of an
arbitrary standard, yet
will still allow and promote abuses by the poor ops.
If you want to come up with a required ID standard, then base it on TIME,
not QSO’s.
I suggest, once per minute. So it will address the ID problem, be easy to
keep track of and not penalize the good ops.
One other thing.... there are MANY contesters out there that actively
participate in many contests.
Collectively, a large group of people active participants (hundreds) can
more effectively think of the pros and cons of
a particular rule change than can one person or a very small group of
people. This should be obvious to all
contest managers and yet very few rule changes are ever publicly proposed
in advance with their stated purpose
and with a period allowed for comments. I don’t know whether this
reflects hubris on the part of the contest manager(s),
or lack of forethought, or other reasons. But I DO know that rules “fit”
better and are more widely respected and
adhered to and make the most sense when people have had the opportunity to
think about, discuss and digest them
BEFORE THE NEW RULE(S) ARE FINALIZED.
If the goal is to make the BEST rules possible for all, then the rule
making process should allow for adequate time for discussion
and be INCLUSIONAL, rather than secretive, and autocratic.
73
Bob KQ2M
kq2m@kq2m.com
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