[PaQSO] CQ vrs S&P

[jimk8mr at aol.com]

Some observations from a long time mobile participant in PA and several other states. And I think I speak for a number of mobile contesting friends:


1. Scoring systems have very little to do with the decision to head out. If we are competing, we are competing against other mobiles who will be under the same scoring system. 


2. One minor exception to the above: One of the thrills of mobile contesting is knowing that a lot of the time we'll be a much appreciated new multiplier for somebody. PAQP has, to its credit, a huge bunch of dedicated ops who do a good job of activating nearly all the counties. But many of these guys are phone ops only. If multipliers were given for each mode, there would be a lot of places that I'd be a new multiplier on CW, even though there had been phone activity from that county. However, even this change would be a minor factor.


3. Two days is unappealing. The two days of operating is not bad, but finding a motel in the far reaches (especially if Penn State is playing a home football game), getting there close to 1 AM, and then being up and on the road by 9 am sucks. Plus, I (and I suspect many others) prefer not blowing off an entire weekend to radio.


4. As I have previously written, the Rover category is great for phone operation. The couple extra S-units with a real antenna on 40 and 80 makes a huge difference on SSB. But one still wants to also be able to operate while between stops. I strongly recommend allowing rovers to operate while moving. If that were the case, I'd spend most of the time parked doing SSB, and most of the time while moving operating CW.


5. Mobile contesting does cost money. For me two full days in PA involves pushing a thousand miles, including my travel on the Ohio side of the state line. That's 40 or so gallons of gas, plus a motel.  (And maybe the Turnpike tolls!). That doesn't force me to eat cat food to make up for a weekend, but it is enough to notice.


6. To get back to the question of two days vs. one, it would be interesting to see the logs of various levels of competitors. How are their rates on the second day? Are they taking lots of time off? Do people quit while the Steelers or Eagles are on TV? Is Sunday really fun, or just a cost of being a serious competitor?




73  -  Jim  K8MR


Hickory HS (Sharon, PA) '67





-----Original Message-----
From: n3bud <n3bud at pa.metrocast.net>
To: Evan Duffey <wxduff at gmail.com>; n3xls <n3xls at juno.com>
Cc: paqso <paqso at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wed, Oct 14, 2015 10:35 am
Subject: Re: [PaQSO] CQ vrs S&P


How about lowering the price of gas and maintenance.  Most likely this and less
than perfect band conditions account for the decline.  Since mobiles are already
in their own category I question any changes to the scoring system making a
difference.
Mike, N3BUD


A simple adjustment to
the rules to encourage rare county activation:

Current Rules:
12. PA Mobile
operation Bonus points
12.a. Add 500 Points to final score for each county you
operated from where
you made at least 10 QSOs.
13. PA Rover operation Bonus
points
13.a. Add 500 Points to final score for each location you operated
from
where you made at least 10 QSOs.

New Rules:
12. PA Mobile Bonus
Points
12a. Rare Counties: The following ten counties have been determined rare
by
the PAQSO party staff (insert 10 rarest counties over the last 5 years).
Add
1000 points to your final score for each rare county where you made at
least 10
QSOs. Add 500 points to your final score for each non-rare county
where you made
at least 10 QSOs.
12b. Add 250 points to your final score for each location you
operated from
where you made at least 10 QSOs.

Just a
suggestion

Evan
N3TWM

On Wed, Oct 14, 2015 at 9:01 AM, n3xls at juno.com
<n3xls at juno.com> wrote:

> Shortening the contest to one day will not ensure
more mobile activity.  I
> think relaxing the rules on mobile's and making more
incentives to go
> mobile would help.  Rover category took off in recent years
and I think
> that took a hit on the  amount of mobiles.
>
> Maybe mobiles need
a score formula where the rare counties and number of
> stations worked and
number of counties activated all play a part in the
> score.
>
> I am not a
mobile op so this is just my 1/2 cents.  I am just following
> the old advice of
whats in it for me if I go to the trouble of activating a
> rare county or have
a game plan of lighting up several counties.  I know
> for the past 15 year no
one would have a sweep with out at least one mobile.
>
> ----- Reply message
-----
> From: "John Getz" <johngetz24 at gmail.com>
> To: <paqso at mailman.qth.net>
>
Subject: [PaQSO] CQ vrs S&P
> Date: Tue, Oct 13, 2015 8:08 PM
>
>
> I concur
with Dave, WN4AFP, that there were a lot of out of state stations
> calling CQ
for PA contacts.  I was one of the callers.  With this being a
> two day
contest, you just run out of PA stations to work and need to
> attract the
casual PA ops that only do S&P.  There was also a shortage of
> PA mobiles to
work.  I think PA should be a one day contest.  It would be
> easier for the
mobile stations so more mobile stations would come out.
> More mobiles to chase
means out of station stations don't have to call CQ
> as much as new counties
and contacts are always becoming available.  I'd be
> interested in hearing what
others think about making PA a one day contest.
>
>
> John Getz
> ​, AD8J​ (Long
time PA resident now retired in NC)
>