[Cwo] CW Open Rules

[Rob K6RB]

All,

I guess I don’t want to make a knee jerk reaction. It would be interesting to see which non-US stations that participated in 2013 did not participate in 2014. We could even email a sample of them to get input on why they did not play in 2014.

The Q number tracks the log numbers, so no surprise. I don’t think the issue with sprint was an issue because it would not have affected non-US participants, and that’s where we saw the major downturn.

I had always hoped that JA participation would grow to where it had an impact, as it does in ARRL DX. But I’m not sure why it remains lackluster. I was buoyed by the increase in EU in 2013 but apparently it was transitory.

I think we need to dig into what’s up and find out why we lost ground. What did we do different in 2013 than in 2014? Have all other contests shown some attrition, too?

As for multi-op category, I’m neutral. I kind of like the SO only nature of CW Open. It may be that having assisted and non-assisted lumped together has become dissuasive to some non-assisted participants. I know, as a non-assisted, that I could be increasing my score significantly by using spotting or RBN. Perhaps assistend and non-assisted need to be separately awarded?

We may have an opportunity with teams to increase participation, but I think it would require awards, not just bragging rights. There’s no question that team competition is what drives Sweepstakes, for example.

Anyway, let’s not simply react. Let’s do some digging and make some informed decisions.

Rob K6RB

From: D Faklis via Cwo 
Sent: Wednesday, November 19, 2014 2:37 PM
To: cwo at kkn.net 
Subject: [Cwo] CW Open Rules

All,

A couple of questions:

1.  The current rules state the following:

"Minimum of 100 QSOs (after log checking) is required to win an award."

Should we require more Q's (say 200 or 300) to win a high combined score trophy?  Not a concern in Region 2, but it plays a role in Regions 1 and 3 until we get more participation from those regions.

2.  Should we consider a multi-op category for 2015 and beyond?  Multi Multi does not seem appropriate, but Multi Single or M/2 might be fun.  What are your thoughts?  Pitfalls?  Advantages?

The 2014 CWO report is nearing completion, thanks to Alan's AD6E great work.  It will be posted on our website and will appear in DEC Solid Copy

Sneak Peek:  95K Q's in 2013, 55K Q's in 2014;  847 logs in 2013, 495 in 2014....only a handful from outside US this year in big contrast to last year.

2015 CWO is September 5




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