In a message dated 5/15/01 2:39:57 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
w4an@contesting.com writes:
>I'll have to say that I respectfully disagree with your opinion on this
>one. I think this event is a great excuse to get together with contest
>friends from around the world.
Anyone who is looking for excuse to get together is free to travel to WRTC,
no need to go through "agony" of selection process, many do that and help or
serve as judges, operate HQ stations, etc. Those who go to measure up their
skills, go for blood, and should be selected according their performance,
results and skills.
>Based on what I saw in SF, I would suggest that station QTH and capability
>will still figure largely in the outcome of this event. I'm absolutely
>100% sure that if K4BAI and I would have had the N6TR/N5KO QTH, we would
>have been left in the lower ranks of the results. Probably not even top
>50%.
We all know that, every contest is partly skill, partly luck (conditions, rig
problems, QRN, QTH, angry XYL, etc.) You gotta try and be there in case IT
happens and your skills get boost while others suffer somehow. That is the
"other" and iffy part of contesting. We were so happy with our hilltop S561C
QTH, until the storm came, and paralyzed us for over 8 hours with 20 over 9
rain static and lightning. Ended down in "losers" half, but alive to have the
beer and enjoy the camaraderie and S5 superhosts.
> Many guys who would be on my list to go probably won't get the chance.
> They do multi-ops or single bands. Great ops, that just don't have the
> opportunity to do SOAB from a big station. That doesn't mean they can't
> cut the mustard in this competition. I'll bet N3RS and N3RD could put it
> to just about any two man team you can name. But neither would qualify
> based on the selection criteria that only took in to account single-ops.
> How is that fair?
>
This is why selecting Captain according to results and then having captain
pick his teammate (worked well before) would allow other good operators to be
available and have a chance to participate. The first round of selection
should be done to select captains, some captains might want to team up with
other captains (playing safe) and relinquish another spot for a captain. The
second round would allow captains to pick teammates from the pool of willing
and available candidates.
I think this would cover the holes in the present selection process.
One team got chopped off from the Canadian allotment, which historically
placed well. Now is only one team from Canada, one team wild card for NA.
Yuri, K3BU
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