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Author Topic: A fair scoring contest  (Read 359 times)

SM0JHF

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A fair scoring contest
« on: October 03, 2022, 08:24:48 AM »

Finally, someone has come up with a global shortwave competition for an average operator and with reasonable scoring scheme.
The Central Siberia DX-Club sponsors the Ham Spirit Contest - https://www.hamspiritcontest.com/
Please read the rules before posting any comments. The positive features, in my opinion, are following:
a) 24-hour format - bearable for many contesters without the use of stimulants
b) points given for contacts with own country, bonus for separate ITU Zones even within own country
c) multipliers based on internationally accepted zones and locators
d) the exchange must be actually received, not filled in by the logging software

The controversial 40-zone and 340-country multiplier lists used in other worldwide competitions create high demand on selected spots.
This is probably attractive for professional contest operators, spending thousands of dollars travelling to rental stations.
These multiplier tables had been conceived long time ago by one ham magazine publisher and a national organization. Today we must comply
with the rules of the International Telecommunication Union, while the Maidenhead Locator System is officially accepted by the IARU and even
implemented in better GPS receivers. The FT8 mode is using this system by default. It seems to me a reasonable and modern layout for a fair play event.

I would suggest skipping the nonsense five-nine/5NN and replacing it with some useful information, for instance the year of birth, or of the first licence.
Processing the logs could show interesting statistical data about activity in assorted Squares and the age of participants. If IARU takes over the
sponsorship of such contest, a lot of vital data would be available for our Union.

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AF5CC

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Re: A fair scoring contest
« Reply #1 on: October 03, 2022, 08:45:51 AM »

Looks similar to the IARU contest except that it includes grid fields in the exchange as well.  Too bad they scheduled it for the same weekend as the CQWW contests, just in the opposite mode.

73 John AF5CC
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N4OGW

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Re: A fair scoring contest
« Reply #2 on: October 04, 2022, 06:56:15 AM »

Some problems with the rules:

1. No power limit in the high power class. Some countries can run more than 1500 W.

2. Point system is unfair if you happen to live on the wrong side of the arbitrary ITU zone boundaries. For example, there are more zone 8 stations in the US compared to zone 7. A zone 7 station gets 3 point for working the many zone 8 stations, but someone just over the line in zone 8 gets only 1 point. Similar problems with stations near continent boundaries.

3. No unassisted class, but that is the way everything is headed unfortunately.

Tor N4OGW
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KH6AQ

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Re: A fair scoring contest
« Reply #3 on: October 04, 2022, 08:07:45 PM »

That is an interesting new contest and I believe I'll give the October 29 CW contest a try. Do we send CQ HS?

Participation could be improved if the contest sponsors can get their new contest listed on the WA7BNM Perpetual Contest Calendar.

https://www.contestcalendar.com/perpetualcal.php
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K3TN

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Re: A fair scoring contest
« Reply #4 on: October 07, 2022, 06:55:33 AM »

Since every HF (and VHF/UHF for that matter) contests rewards ops who work other ops and since those ops are not evenly distributed around the globe, the realities of propagation mean all contests are unfair to some.

Many contests try to equalize things with various points per QSO rules but some geographies still end up with significant scoring  advantages.

The World Radio Team Championships is one of the exceptions - two op teams travel to one location, use identical power and antennas and operate during an existing contest (IARU HF.) There are even full-time observers to make sure no cheating. Very fair -but limited since not feasible to have thousands of ops entered!
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John K3TN

AF5CC

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Re: A fair scoring contest
« Reply #5 on: October 07, 2022, 07:36:55 AM »

The World Radio Team Championships is one of the exceptions - two op teams travel to one location, use identical power and antennas and operate during an existing contest (IARU HF.) T

That is exactly what makes that contest fair. Since that doesn't happen in any other contest, no other contest will be fair. Every other contest involves most ops using better antennas than myself, so they will never be fair.

73 John AF5CC
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N2SR

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Re: A fair scoring contest
« Reply #6 on: October 07, 2022, 04:19:43 PM »


That is exactly what makes that contest fair. Since that doesn't happen in any other contest, no other contest will be fair. Every other contest involves most ops using better antennas than myself, so they will never be fair.

73 John AF5CC

Life isn't fair.  Get over it.  Contesting is not a socialist event. 

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KH6AQ

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Re: A fair scoring contest
« Reply #7 on: October 29, 2022, 12:47:49 PM »

The Ham Spirit contest is in its 13th hour and at my QTH I have heard and worked just two stations. The Contest Online Scoreboard shows four stations passing 1000 Qs. 27 of the 53 stations reporting are Russian.

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KH6AQ

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Re: A fair scoring contest
« Reply #8 on: October 29, 2022, 07:43:31 PM »

With the bands opening for me to the east things have picked up with many Russian, Chinese and Japanese stations working the Ham Spirit contest. U.S. hams are calling but few know the exchange.
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N1UR

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Re: A fair scoring contest
« Reply #9 on: November 01, 2022, 09:56:54 AM »

Looks like the contest was simply a Russian "in your face" to the CQ WW.  I don't particularly blame them but they missed a great CQ WW and we missed all of our Russian friends. 

I did get a few calls from Russians and Belarus stations.  And there were about half a dozen very active Russian and Ukraine stations on in CQ WW.

But lets just call this contest what it is.  Its the Russian alternative contest and nothing more.  Not knocking it, just stating the facts.

Ed  N1UR
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KG4RUL

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Re: A fair scoring contest
« Reply #10 on: November 02, 2022, 04:37:53 AM »

..... professional contest operators .....

The reason I don't participate any more.
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