Its a tough slog if you want to devise a contest that is predicated
solely upon an existing format. Big stations who make it 44 or 48 hours
are almost always going to win.
If you want to change things up for DXers and contesters who want to
drive hard, my recommendation would be to operate within the confines of
an existing contest and do four-hour "challenges" to be entered by only
contestants within a specific CQ zone - competing against competitors
within that CQ zone. So, for zone 3 guys, set up two four hour windows
on Sunday - one in the morning and one in the evening. Same for guys in
zone 15 for their morning and evenings. Create a different rule set -
maybe based on distance plus DXCC entities worked.
Just one idea bounced off the wall.
73 Rich NN3W
On 4/7/2017 8:51 PM, Mark wrote:
Hi Randy et al
The various comments have made interesting reading. If I may add some
thoughts.
Firstly I think people might go on small Dxpeditions to activate semi rare
entities. This already happens in the Commonwealth contest where one of
the highlights are the "travelers" who activate semi rare entities for the
rest of us to work. It is great fun chasing them around the bands. This
may be an attraction for the rate guys who aren't that interested in DXing
but love being on the end of a pile up.
An emphasis on countries and zones will level the playing field somewhat as
it will make people turn their beams to parts of the world they may not
ordinarily do so. Likewise people in some parts of the world who don't
bother to do contests because they have no chance of competing may look at
this as a fun alternative. It will also force people to think like DX.
I can see assisted and unassisted categories which will be interesting in
itself. I suspect most DXers use assistance of some sort so there may not
be the demarcation you see in ordinary contests.
One other observation. There is a lot of time spent on this forum talking
about innovation in terms of operating aids but precious little in terms of
contesting rules scoring or objectives. If it is to survive in the long
term I think it needs to look at the latter.
73
Mark ZL3AB
On Fri, 7 Apr 2017 at 12:03, Randy Thompson K5ZD <k5zd@charter.net> wrote:
Hi Mark,
I spent a lot of time thinking about something like this when I was Director
of the CQWW. I know there are a lot of DXers out there who operate the
contest just to chase countries. Always wondered if there would be interest
in a "DXer" competition where the winner would have the highest total
countries + zones. I balked on doing something because it seemed like the
top mults always went to the serious guys who made the most QSOs. Never
found a good way to put the emphasis more on DX chasing. Perhaps a combined
total for SSB and CW would help.
Didn't see much discussion on this, but wanted to add some support for the
idea.
Randy, K5ZD
-----Original Message-----
From: CQ-Contest [mailto:cq-contest-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of
Mark
Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2017 9:23 PM
To: CQ-Contest@contesting.com
Subject: [CQ-Contest] Contest Idea
A few days ago there were some comments around contests and rules you
would like to see. So here is one idea.
At the moment CQ has a DX Marathon that runs for a year. I have been
thinking what would happen if there was a version that was run over 48
hours? As with the Marathon the object would be to work as many
countries and zones as you could but unlike the CQ WW (for example) the
number of QSOs you make is irrelevant. You could utilise the categories
in the existing CQ WW contests e.g. single op single band or all band,
assisted, unassisted, multi op etc. The exchange would be report and CQ
Zone (the latter largely so you know what zone the person is in so you
can claim it). Ties would be broken by looking at who worked their last
country/zone the earliest.
Unlike the CQ WW which is largely a rate contest, this would be a
strategy contest i.e. you would have to figure out how to maximise your
country and zone count. When do you call CQ? Should you S&P instead?
Which way should I turn my beam and when? Of course you may end up
working a number of stations who do not count because you have already
worked someone in that region (but who you should log regardless), but
that might be the price worth paying to work for example that rare zone
guy who you have heard and who does not like pile ups.
This sort of format might also encourage non-contesters (i.e DXers) to
have a go and from there if they like it a few more may turn up in the
more regular type contests. Any QSO would also count towards the annual
DX marathon so a lot of those guys would probably turn up looking for new
countries.
Issues to be considered would be modes and bands. As a competition it
should probably be restricted to the non-WARC bands although of course
the annual DX Marathon covers all bands. Presumably any mode should
count i.e.
CW SSB and digital which would certainly spread the participants out and
the entry categories should reflect that.
Log checking should in theory be easier as you only have to worry about
QSOs that were new countries and Zones for an entrant.
To avoid a cluttered contest calendar perhaps it could be run each year
on a weekend which crosses two months. This year for example would be
September 30 and October 1. That would add an additional element of
changing the seasonal propagation so you may need to think of a new
strategy each time.
If you want to get an idea of what an outcome may look like, have a look
at the CQ WW results database and sort a category by countries worked.
It is quite interesting.
73
Mark ZL3AB (flameproof jacket suitably donned)
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