From: Dave Lawley, G4BUO LAWLEYD - WEBS
To: 44372 - IBMX400
Subject: Contest Coding
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A couple of people have asked about the coding system introduced by RSGB.
We kept it simple, as we are having great problems in getting enough space
for publication of results and too much additional data would only make
the space problem worse. The coding scheme has some similarities with
Larry's suggestion but has just four categories as follows:
1. Power (0 up to 1W; 1 up to 5W; 2 up to 20W; 3 up to 100W; 4 up to 400W)
2. Antenna (C centre fed; G ground plane; Y yagi; Q quad orloop; W other wire)
3. No. of antenna elements
4. Height of antenna/10. ('9' for anything over 90 feet)
We haven't yet updated the summary sheets to include these fields, and one
of the problems is that a lot of people just note the rig and antenna on
the summary sheet so we can't publish the antenna height, which is often
the most important factor in our domestic 160m/80m contests.
It is a sad fact that the standard station in the UK seems to be 100W and
a G5RV. The little pistols have a half-sized G5RV. Karl Cratzer's rather
jaundiced report of the RSGB HF Convention in NCJ nevertheless correctly
reported my view that severe planning restrictions and TVI problems
limit the volume of Gs who get the contest bug, but it is also true that
our short, sharp contests are far more popular. Our 80m CW AFS event in
January attracts around 350 logs. The number of Gs licensed for HF is about
30,000. Do the sums yourselves to work out how many U.S. entries that
equates to in CW Sweepstakes.
73, Dave G4BUO
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