Here are a few WRTC thoughts. A few years ago, a Portland, OR based
organization called the "Friendship Amateur Radio Society" (FARS) hosted
some radio sportgames in Portland for about a dozen Russians and a couple
of Japanese visitors.
The Russians fielded two teams, the Americans t5??two teams, and the Japanese
one team.
It was decided to have 3 basic events: Morse code proficiency, fox hunting,
and HF contesting. Tjhe?? The Morse code event was broken into three events:
high speed sending, high speed receiving, and a simulated pile-up copying
event similar to what happens in the hotel suites at Dayton. The rules for
these events are rather com;lex?? complex and take several pages so I won't
repeat them here. If you are interested in a complete set of rules, you
can probably get them by writing to W7AGQ. The high speed sending event was
judged by a panel of judges and was not entirely objective since one of the
criteria was "style". (Not really unlike judging a high diver in the Olympics.)
The high speed receiving event was a little more objective since the code
was machine sent at precise speeds, copied on computers, and computer checked
for errors. A few contestants copied by hand and these results were hand
checked. There are a lot of controversial issues in a high speed receiving
test. You will certainly not find universal agreement about several key
issues. Let me give you some bvery?? very controversial issues as
examples:
1. Should the text be random characters or words?
2. IF random characters, which characters? 26 letters? 10 numerals?
Which punctuation? How about prosigns like -...- or .-.-. ??
3. If randon characters, what size groups? 5 characters? Random size?
4. If words, what language?
We had a lot of heated discussion over this and over my strong objections,
we settled o ?? on "plain English text" which is a distinct disadvantage
for anyone whose first language is not English.
With regard to the HF event, the first WRTC had just been held in Seattle
and I had heard a lot of comments about the fu?? frustration in trying
to level the playing field be reducing some fine stations to the lowest
common denominatior. I thought of a wild scheme for leveling the playing
field in a muy?? much different way: find the 5 best stations in the area
and allow each team to operate from each station. This is how we did it.
The teams played musical chairs (stations) during the contest which was
a 5 hour event. They drew lots to see which station they would start at
and then followed a specific pattern as they moved from station to station.
The contest began on the hour and pre?? proceded for one hour at which time
everyone paused for one hour while the teams moved to the next station.
Operation then commenced again for one hour and then paused while the teams
shifteed again. the total contest took 9 hours--5 operating and 4 moving
to the next station. I know this idea sounds crazy but it worked quite
well and, most of all, the visitors had a great time operating the best
contest stations in the area at full bore.
Here aresome of the advantages to this scheme:
1. Nobody has to tear his stations apart and try to make it equal to some
other station.
2. A complete video tape was made of the stations staring the station
owners describing their equipment so the contestants could develop some
strategy.
3. We were able to recruit a lot of non-contest type hams to help with
driving the teams between stations.
4. The station owners stayed with their stations and got to meet all of the
visitors and help them change bands etc.
5. The visitors got a little tour of the countryside.
there was virtually no publicity for this event and still the SO?? QSO
totals were between 300 and 400 for the 5 hours of on-air time. I am sure
that the publicity that another WRTC event will get would make the totals
much higher.
It would not be necesssry for the entire contest the shut down on alternate
hours for the WRTC event because you cold?? could arange to hv?? have half the
teams traveling whille the other half is operating. This brings two add-
ional advantages. It only requires 25 stations for 50 teams and contest
continuity is preserved for the casual participant. My suggestion would
be to arrange for 5 groups of 5 stations and run the contest as a 10 hour
event with each t4a?? team putting in 5 hours.
As I recall, our teams had 3 m3mbers each consisting of 2 operators and
one logger whose job it was to enter the hand written log into computers
off-line as the contest progressed.
Our contest started at 2100 UTC on Friday and ended 9 hours lated?? later
at 0600 UTC Saturday.
Of corse there are inequities in this scheme. tjhere?? There are way too
many variables to try to predict a winner with any accuracy. Please don't
ask me what particular skills were tested! Was it fun? You bet it was.
Participating stations were: W7NI, K7RO, K2RAG, W7EJ, WR7D
Calls used by the teams were: W7NI, W7EJ, Ai7B, W7RM, W7PH
As I recall it, the W7RM team won manned by W7WA and helpers and coached
by the man himself, Rush Drake.
W7NI@delphi.com
"If you can't work 'em, it doesn't matter if you can hear 'em."
>From James White <0006492564@mcimail.com> Wed Sep 7 06:18:00 1994
From: James White <0006492564@mcimail.com> (James White)
Subject: Melbourne Hamfest Meeting
Message-ID: <93940907051839/0006492564PK4EM@mcimail.com>
One more time - Floridians don't forget this Saturday......
QST QST QST QST QST QST QST QST QST QST QST QST QST QST QST QST QST QST QST
----------- FLORIDA CW CONTEST GROUP - FLORIDA CW CONTEST GROUP -----------
There will be a meeting of the Florida CW Contest Group on Noon
September 10th at the Melbourne Hamfest....the day of the NCJ NA Sprint-CW.
We will all meet at the ticket stub bin by the entry to the hamfest
and then proceed to an eatery close by to proceed. Please try and make it
there by 12:minimum so we can promptly eat, or uh, start the meeting.
Please cross post this message to the Florida Packet Clusters
See you at Melbourne, noon Saturday........I am still in the market
for a 15 meter Yagi - lemme know!
73,
Jim, K1ZX
President
Florida CW Contest Group
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