I have to agree that it would be difficult or impossible to change the
rules of a VHF Contest to level the playing field. There are simply too
many regional factors that influence the outcome that cannot be overcome
with scoring variations. Terrain, population density, varying activity
levels, and propagation.
Many of us benefit from e-skip propagation that is common during the
Summer events, others from a large population of VHF amateurs in their
area, etc.
The closest parallel in HF contesting is probably 160 Meters, where
attempts have been made to address the problems with distance scoring.
Even that has met with only mixed success, and the problems on VHF,
while similar, are much more pronounced.
I think the solution is simple.
Eliminate a national winner or winners, and make all VHF & UHF contests
regional events. Each call district would have it's own champion in each
category.
This would basically just recognize what we already know to be fact.
Some areas of the country have a much better opportunity for success
regardless of operator skill, station, or strategy.
We might also be able to then eliminate some categories, and simply the
whole process. Stations could concentrate on winning their call sign
division, where the playing field is much closer to level. It still
won't be perfect, region 2 for example, would greatly favor stations in
the Northern side of the region, but it would be much closer to
perfection than what we have now.
What am I missing?
--
73,
Les Rayburn, N1LF
121 Mayfair Park
Maylene, AL 35114
EM63nf
6M VUCC #1712
AMSAT #38965
Grid Bandits #222
Southeastern VHF Society
Central States VHF Society Life Member
Six Club #2484
Active on 6 Meters thru 1296, 10GHz & Light
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