A simple change that would make a lot of people happy: Do away with the
ARRL's one radio/one callsign/one location rule.
For many years I did the "Single Operator - Multi Station" effort, spending six hours
from each of four locations, one of my which was my QTH. With the "fresh meat" factor my
rate went up as the contest went on, and nobody ever complained about having three extra stations
to work.
I've stepped back in recent years, in part because the first weekend on
November is when I'm relocating to snowbird land. Last year the hurricanes in
Florida delayed the trip south, so I started at my QTH, then went to W8KEN (now
SK) and K8AZ, before returning to my QTH to fire up W3USA, albeit using a
different radio. I did about four hours from each place. The rate as W3USA,
running A power, was the best of the weekend.
I think the one and done rule came out of concern that someone would get on and
work fellow club members with multiple callsigns to boost a club score total.
If that is the concern, modern log checking could spot calls repeatedly showing
up in only certain club logs.
Allowing multiple callsigns, with a minimum off time before resuming a call's
use, would allow rate junkies to keep going, and give a lot of extra calls for
the 24 hour diehards to keep busy with.
And set up a listing of the sum of scores from a multiple callsign operator. In
my serious SO-MS efforts my total scores would come close to the highest
scoring single ops. I'd have more QSOs, but typically miss a few sections from
each stop. That would make for an interesting competition.
Note that CQ does not have such a rule for their contests. I've operated WPX
and CQ 160 contests with multiple calls from my station, and nobody has ever
complained about having another call (and perhaps multiplier) to work.
73 - Jim K8MR
On Thursday, July 31, 2025 at 06:55:54 AM EDT, john@kk9a.com
<john@kk9a.com> wrote:
Many of those who posted in favor of a second SS have not operated the
entire 24 hours of the current sweepstakes contest. I don't think the long
exchange is an issue, it's just that working stations only once regardless
of the band really limits the activity. The ARRL Sweepstakes starts out
fast and fun but it can get brutally slow near the end, especially on the CW
leg. I am not proposing a rule change but I think one SSB and one CW
Sweepstakes per year is adequate.
John KK9A (W4AAA in SS)
Doug Grant k1dg wrote:
Isn't SS the contest everyone says is dying because the exchange is too
long and there's no activity on Sunday afternoon?
Can we reboot the existing one before we add a second one?
73.
Doug K1DG
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