I was asked what will change for the unassisted ops if an assisted class is
added. I would expect that if an assisted class was added, close to 50% of the
entrants would go assisted. That would make a big change on the dynamics of the
contest:
1. Cluster pileups on rare mults. In NAQP even with a small station (I operated
NAQP for years with only wires...a tribander at 50' would have been huge) you
can still find mults and not have to fight through big pileups. This will make
the contest less friendly for small stations. Even small stations can run in
NAQP. If there are many assisted stations who are always calling the rarer
mults first, the run rate may actually go down for small stations in more
common states.
2. The whole strategy of band choice and mult finding would change. Because
mults count per-band and NAQP is short, finding mults on multiple bands is a
big deal. This weekend I found 10 open to the east coast later in the afternoon
(2200z?). Very few were there. Later 15 was open to W9. A ZF moved me from 15
to 10 when nobody else was on 10. Finding these openings is part of what makes
NAQP fun and challenging. With the reverse beacon network these openings would
be discovered instantly, and unassisted ops would find them easier as well (it
is easier to see 10 is open when a whole bunch of assisted ops are there). You
can argue that this would be better and allow more qsos to be make, but it
would certainly take out part of what makes the contest interesting and makes
skill count.
#2 is also why unassisted stations should not be allowed to look at their own
callsign reports in reverse beacon during the contest. Hint: want to see if 10
is open? Check the beacon band 28.200-300...
BTW ncjweb.com now has results available all the way back to the first NAQP
(1991). NAQP has grown quite a bit in popularity so I don't see what needs
"fixing" about it. High scorers now are making twice as many qsos as in the
1990's.
73 Tor N4OGW
On Monday, August 9, 2021, 6:45:15 AM CDT, Kevan Nason <knason00@gmail.com>
wrote:
It was after several trips to a multi-multi that the assisted bug bit me
hard, so I understand the “old school” viewpoint. Although most all my
operation now is Assisted, I welcome the NAQP to keep unassisted skills
sharp. That’s because, IMHO, Assisted ops don’t generally score high
without also being good runners and having strong S&P skills. Let’s keep
NAQP’s unassisted. Besides, there are evidently several people who like the
rules as they are. (Many have forgotten it, but there is word called
“compromise”. Not every contest has to try and please everyone.)
Wait until participation goes down before changing the rules? You think
people would come back in after leaving? That doesn’t sound like a good
idea to me. We want to encourage more new contesters, not discourage the
old ones that are still here. If anything, keeping old folks around who
want to be assisted is actually a reason to change the rules. It would be
good to keep them happy. On the other hand, changing to allow Assisted
might drive some out. Experience says people are more likely to stick
around and keep griping if things stay the same; as opposed to more likely
to leave if they don't like a change that was forced on them. Let's leave
it alone and keep more people contesting.
As a separate issue, people talk a lot about abusing power limits in the
NAQP’s. I noticed (and later post-contest read a comment from a second ham
that he too experienced the same thing) that within a minute or two of
showing up CQing on a new band I would have a rush of people calling me. It
was remarkably similar to being fresh RBN meat in a contest that allows
spotting. After the initial rush, things settled out to normal rates. Just
as it does in a contest where people are using spots. What’s up with that?
It happened often enough to be suspicious. Rhetorical question, but don’t
people with well known calls read the rules? It was suggested it was SO2R
operating. Both the other ham and I thought we were found way too quickly
for that to be plausible. Occam's Razor suggests spotting assistance was
being used by too many people in this contest.
Art, are you implying people who like assistance are wimps?
Kevan N4XL
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