Now that "'nuf's" been finally said, I'll tack on my
own post-nuf comments.
Dana's done some homework and what he says here
counts. Dana's reasons and those of many others who
are against making major changes in the rules are the
real truth. Fact is, no matter what guise you put
"level the playing field" under, it cannot be done.
Out here in the Pacific Northwest, there's no way we
could ever win a major VHF contest. But, right now, we
have the freedom to try. We can build bigger antennas,
run higher power, utilize more bands, etc. At least,
it's possible to make a show. If changes are made to
make it easier for anyone to win, what's going to be
gained? This is supposed to be competition. The real
competitors have been building their efforts for years
around the present rules.
Limited Multi: No, I didn't like it, either. The thing
I don't like about it is that they automatically put
your score in that group if you run four or fewer
bands. It's possible to beat the Unlimited entries
even with fewer bands, hence, that category should be
chosen, not mandated, in that circumstance. Whatever.
It's no big deal. If you don't like it, submit with
more than four bands.
Of course, having VHF competions contributes (in the
long run) to populating the bands. But, levelling the
playing field isn't the way to make people want to
compete, that is, get something out of competing.
Competitions are more fun when it's more difficult to
win. The difficulty of the competitions leads to
better equipment, antennas, operators - and - better
use of the spectrum. To me, ERP-based rules would be a
stairway to mediocrity.
My proposal: Leave the major VHF/UHF contest rules
alone.
73,
Paul, K7CW
--- N1OFZ <n1ofz@arrl.net> wrote:
> I have been rereading and rethinking Ev's proposal
> for many days now.
> It got me to thinking about why these changes were
> suggested in the
> first place. Increased participation in the higher
> bands. I'm pretty
> sure the changing the scoring to ERP is not going to
> do that.
>
> 17 of 445 class A ops used bands over 1296 in the
> June 2003 contest.
> Out of the top 10 class A ops only 1 had bands over
> 1296. Further,
> that op only had 2304 and made 2Q's. So it is
> pretty clear that you
> don't need a lot of bands to win SOLP. On the other
> hand, 29 of 157
> class B ops used bands over 1296. 6 out of the top
> 10 ops had bands
> over 1296. Looks like to be competitive in SOHP you
> have to have more
> bands. Dare I say that there is almost a self
> imposed (natural) 5 band
> limit in SOLP?
>
> The focus of increasing participation on the higher
> bands needs to be
> on finding an inexpensive, plug and play way of
> getting the large
> number of guys with IC-706's, FT-100's and all the
> other HF-VHF/UHF
> rigs on SHF+. The guys who can build transverters
> themselves and the
> scrounger/modifier are probably already on these
> bands. What is left
> is a big pool of people who need a way. Telling
> them to shell out
> $400+ for a transverter and then a few more hundred
> for feed line,
> relays, etc, doesn't make sense to them. They
> probably only spent
> $500-1000 for a rig that does HF-UHF. Why does it
> cost almost as much
> to add one SHF band? Why bother? The stats show it
> is not even going
> to help their score much. Where does ERP classes
> provide an incentive
> to add more bands? If anything it might move some
> of the existing SOLP
> into SOHP which may not make them too happy.
>
> In general guys who want to get on other bands do it
> because they want
> to. Curiosity, the challenge and I'm sure many
> other reasons. The
> only way to get the 'general population' to do it is
> to make it easy
> and cheap to do. No contest rules change is going
> to do it...
>
> Dana
> N1OFZ
>
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> VHFcontesting@contesting.com
>
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