I sat down the other night to spend some rare spare time perusing the
May CQ issue, which had the 1997 WPX results in it. (A side wonder re:
11 months to tabulate a contest?) A couple of things really shocked me.
I have been following the WPX banter with interest since it (this year's
edition) started a few months ago. I now wonder if some of the posters
have ever read the scores...
The World Scores listing carries USA scores if there are any large
enough to make it. There were 310 calls on that page. 47 were USA calls.
Further, **NO** USA calls were first in their category. More than that,
no USA calls were EVEN CLOSE to first place. About as close as they got
was 3/4 of the top score, most far less than that.
In the Club competition, Contest Club Finland, and Slovenia bested USA's
top club score (the venerable Frankford Radio Club) 82 meg, 70 meg, to
59 meg. and YU, Araucaria, and Rhein Ruhr weigh in before USA's next
entry (YCCC).
Have we not seen (my own postings included) a raft of postings about USA
West Coast vs. East Coast. And a lot of whining, posturing, etc, etc
about winning, etc. USA didn't win anything in 97 WPX.
USA WAS DRUBBED, SMOKED, BURIED, SCORCHED, BY EU in 97 WPX.
Forget East Coast vs West Coast and the mid-America black hole. How come
no talk in this contest about how to negate the huge advantage Europe
has over USA?
My (probably highly questionable) preliminary arithmetic says that the
new 1 point rule for in-USA contacts will come nowhere close to closing
the gap, even if it turns into a sweepstakes over here.
Just how does EU stomp USA in this contest? Better Equipment they roll
out for this contest? They know how to work WPX better than us? Can't be
the 36 hour rule. Gap for single op about the same as multi-multi.
The America's Cup this ain't. More like USA in the World Cup.
Flame-retardant suit on...
73, Y'all.
--
Guy L. Olinger
Apex, NC, USA
k2av@qsl.net
'AV since '74, previously K4VDL, K3FKJ, W2HVA.
(Remember those? Get in touch!)
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