Just a few thoughts from someone who is a long way from anywhere else -
close to Perth, the most isolated capital city in the world.
I think the DX window in the contest is a great idea - it helped me to hold
a frequency in the contest and give many USA and JA stations a VK QSO. The
majority of USA stations seemed to avoid it, unless calling DX stations there.
Prior to my sunrise, I worked only a handful of Europeans, despite some
strong signals. Most of the ones I called were operating outside the DX window.
In desperation, I picked what sounded like a clear frequency in the
intercontinental contest DX window (1830 - 1835) and called CQ TEST for
several minutes without success. Now, I don't know what was happening in
Europe at that time in the DX window, but my guess is, on the basis of what
has been reported on this reflector, there may have been several European
stations working other Europeans in the window at the same time I was
calling CQ there.
Perhaps if there had been less European stations working other Europeans in
the window, there might have been quite a few more Europeans that got a VK6
QSO in the log.
On the other hand, I am only worth 10 points to a European station. If
he/she can work 3 - 5 closer stations and get the same amount of points, why
should they care about working those hard-to-hear rare DX stations who use
the window? This is why I favour a scoring system that really favours long
distance QSOs, as used in the Stew Perry TBC - it really makes it worth your
while to hunt down the long distance stations, rather than endlessly calling
CQ and not caring who gets squished on the frequencies around you.
If we don't observe the window AND change the scoring system, the CQ 160 is
going to become another megawatt, 'might is right' machine-type contest -
and you can count me out of it. I think topbanders can do better than this.
Vy 73,
Steve, VK6VZ
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