The CQ WW Contest Committee conducted a survey of contesters from September 2 to 29, 2015. Invitations were sent to everyone who had submitted a log in the 2014 CQ WW SSB and CW events. Public invitation to take the survey was also made on the cq-contest email reflector.
We received 5,117 responses from contest operators around the world (after removing a few duplicate responses). See the part 1 for a look at who answered the survey. This blog post will present the results of the questions about possible rule changes.
Q: Should the Single Operator and Single Operator Assisted categories be combined into one Single Operator category?
(The combined Single Operator category would allow ALL entrants to use spotting networks, DX cluster, packet, reverse beacon network, telnet, and DX Skimmer to help the operator find contacts.) *
Many national and regional contests have combined single operators into one category that permits use of the DX Cluster. There is often confusion by new contesters over the distinction between the “non-assisted” and “assisted” categories. The CQ WW Contest Committee spends a large number of hours each year trying to confirm entries are in the correct category.
The overall majority of respondents support continuing to have two separate categories. This is similar to the response in 2013 when this same question was asked. (The 2013 survey did not provide an option for no opinion.)
| 2015 | 2013 | |
| Yes | 2117 (41.4%) | 2315 (44.9%) |
| No | 2551 (49.8%) | 2839 (55.1%) |
| No opinion | 449 (8.7%) | n/a |
| Total | 4668 | 5154 |
