Alan:
Thanks for the imput. You say:
>What goes around, comes around - here we are repeating history, almost.
>Recall that we used to have a power multiplier in the SS back in the
>'60s and earlier. This was an attempt to equalize things to a degree.
>It did not work because, as Bob said, there are unscrupulous people
>(read cheaters) out there who will take advantage if they think that
>they can get away with it. As we all know, the power multiplier was
>dropped. But now we have separate competitive classes within the
>contest structure that allow high power stations to compete against
>high power stations, low power stations to compete against low power
>stations and QRP stations to compete against QRP stations. A better
>arrangement, in my opinion. The winners of each classification are
>indeed recognized, but usually, the big guns get most of the glory
>when the contest results are published.
Two comments:
A power multiplier is ineffective because it put a station running a
KW and vertical in the same class as a station running a KW and
stacked arrays. I think that if there is going to a power based
division it will have to be based on ERP. Although it would be
difficult to assess the gain on an individual antenna there is no
reason why a class of antennas could not be assigned a standard gain
eg dipole = 1, 3 el yagi = 8, stacked 3 el = 12 OR some such standard.
As for the CHEATERS there is probably very little one can do about
this problem. I must admit that sometimes my frustration level gets so
high working contests up here that it is tempting to run a KW and
enter in the low power class - who would come to the heart of VE5 land
to verify that? However, being that I have a great deal of respect for
my ham radio collegues I have kept it in my imagination - after all
honesty is the best road to follow in life - it is far less confusing.
I guess my final comment comes back to my original posting. THIS is
1992 and we have more technology available in our Shacks that at any
other time. When consideration was given to changing contests before
it was "partly based" on the fact that the computation of the score
had to be kept simple. FORTUNATELY, now we have personal computers and
by the turn of the century, I expect, almost every contester will have
a computer - computation is not a problem anymore. The time maybe be
right to have a serious re-visit of the contest issue.
Alan, thanks for the comments - keep them coming.
Sylvan
VE5ZX - SYL
|