[PaQSO] 20m vs 40 & 80m

[Jimk8mr at aol.com]

W3IZ's comments are much in agreement with what I have observed.
 
I'm of the opinion that this is a culture issue, not something that will be 
 affected much by rules (i.e. extra points for 20 meters & up, for  
example).
 
The PA QSO **PARTY** is much like any other party. There are two types of  
parties - ones where you invite close friends and have a good time hanging 
out  together, and ones where you invite lots of people, including people you 
may not  know well or even at all, but would like to get to know. Think 
fraternity  parties - do you limit it to your own fraternity, or do you invite 
the whole  campus?
 
If you extend an invitation to all but then just hang out with your close  
friends, the outsiders will lose interest and wander off to someplace where 
they  are welcomed, or at least not ignored. Hold several events like this 
and  experience and the word do get out.
 
Parties of the first kind can still be a lot of fun. Just don't be  
surprised when outsiders don't get excited about coming.
 
 
73   -   Jim   K8MR         ( /R in 2013 until the  minivan breaks broke)
 
 
 
p.s   Comments  posted on the 3830 Contest Score reporting  site, from KU8E 
in Georgia, who spent 12 hours and made 250 QSOs in  the PaQP this year. 
Things must be even worse in W6 where 40 meters is not an  option at all for 
most of the time:  

"This  is the first time I really spent much time in the PQP. It appears 
that
most  of the activity is on 40 meters (during the day and 80 at night) with 
 PA
stations  mostly working each other. If you were too far away to work PA 
during
the  day on the lower bands this QSO party would really suck. I'm 
borderline  and
could  work the louder stations on 40 during the day. Too bad more stations
didn't  go to 20 meters since it was open to PA pretty good from GA. Most 
of  my
20  meter SSB QSO's were answers to my CQ's."

 
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 10/25/2013 4:56:29 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
w3iz at sbcglobal.net writes:


My  observation has been that many ops seem to be looking for a clean sweep 
of PA  counties and pass up on more mults outside of the state.  
I have  operated this contest for a few decades both inside and outside of 
PA and from  some rare counties. I can say that the advantage of being 
inside PA is that  you get to work EVERYBODY.  When operating outside of PA you 
can go for  some long stretches without a QSO if trying to run.  It also 
seems that  there are fewer stations running and just S&P looking for  counties.
Just my observations.
73,
Norm  W3IZ