When you calculate the rate across some period
(last N contacts, or the last M minutes),
you are calculating an average value.
And remember that average values are just one number
divided by another number, and the average value
might not even be a measured value; consider the
average rate in one hour of half run and half S&P;
with true S&P=30 and true Run Rate=60 you'd get
an average rate of 45, yet looking at the 5 or 10
minute detail, you'd see "bi-modal" data, all around
30 or all around 60, with nothing anywhere near 45.
As you reduce the duration of the period over which
you calculate the average, come closer to the reporting
the instantaneous rate, which will always be higher than
the average rate.
At the start of the contest (or if the rate meter
is reset by the software after a mode/band change),
the new rate will be calculated on a much shorter
interval, until you've been running that band for
10 minutes.
At KL7RA in CQ WW SSB at the start, or when a new
band opening popped up, it was easy to log 12 QSOs
in the first 2 min => 6 per minute => 360 rate,
but the actual first hour QSO count in both 2000
and 2001, on the two hot bands, 10 and 15, were,
as I recall, 241, 240, 241, and 241 in one hour!
Barry, W5GN
Herbert W. Barry Merrill, PhD
President-Programmer
MXG Software
Merrill Consultants
Dallas, Texas, USA
214 351 1966
www.mxg.com
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