"John" wrote

How about an incentive for the big scorers to work the newcomers? More points
per QSO if the check is less than 5 years old?

I really LIKE that one! The contest sponsor would need to validate it however,
or operators would adopt an artificially low number just to generate a run.

More points if the serial number is also below a certain threshhold?

I'm not sure that one is workable ..... everyone starts out with serial #1,
and the object is to rapidly increment that number so this would be a
disincentive to do well, even to the newcomer (unless I don't understand what
you propose).

Also, can the contest logs be used to get credit toward ARRL awards
like WAS the way it used to be for DXCC? Given the cost of QSLs and the return
rate, that could also be an incentive for some newcomers.

In effect this is already in place. I uploaded my log to LoTW 10 minutes after
the close of SS PH and already had close to 50 QSL's waiting for me. Right
now LoTW supports just DXCC, but WAS and WAZ are next (soon) to be implemented.

BTW - How did you do?

Not as well as I'd hoped. 773/79 on CW and 1043/80 on Phone weekend.

Phone weekend was especially frustrating, because conditions seemed so good.
Don't know what I did wrong, but just couldn't ratchet it up to the right level.
First few hours were OK (not great) with rates in the 70's, but then struggled
with long bands until about midnight. Couple good hours on 40 after midnight,
but not enough stations left to recover from the slow evening hours. Had a
pretty good Sunday afternoon on 40 starting about 2000Z, but I think I was
paying too much attention to my "half radio" (Drake R4C) looking for missing
mults. Ended up about 400 Q's off my target.

May be time to look at a new radio. I know I'm missing a lot of weak stations
on my run freqs, especially on 40M/80M. The Icom 775 attenuator doesn't seem to
be any good on those bands, and consequently the front end folds up with a lot
of strong adjacent RF. When N0AT, KT0R, NN7L, K0AD (all within a couple miles)
stroke up on 80M you could power an amp by rectifying the RF off my antenna
field!

73, de Hans, K0HB