Pete,
We seem to agree on many issues here on the reflector, but if I understood
you correctly, your opinion is that the Scandinavian Activity Contest is a
contest with little activity?
I would say that the activity in this contest has gradually and quite
quickly increased since five years ago. I can not think of any truly
regional contest which has more active stations, considering that the
population of the Scandinavian countries is not more than 30 million
inhabitants. On the contrary, the activity during the 24 hours of operation
is pretty high on all bands, with many stations willing to QSY for other
band points and multipliers.
I both enjoy operating SAC from Scandinavia and abroad - and agree with
Barry W5GN, that the "work only this region/country" formula makes SAC and
other similar contests more interesting than all those "work everyone"
contests.
About contest-free segments, I see no problems at all with that. On the
contrary, it shows that the organizers are keen to leave space for
non-contesters to operate. Too many contest sponsors have a sloppy approach
to contest-free segments. This causes a big irritation among non-contesters.
I am definitely in favour of penalties for stations who do not follow the
suggested segments of a contest.
Looking forward to working SAC SSB this weekend, no matter if I choose to do
it from Russia or from Scandinavia itself. The band will boil from the Polar
Battle :) Listen for the characteristic Aurora flutter that most definitely
to some extent will be noticeable...
73 de RA/SM6LRR (huge SAC fan)
2011/10/3 Pete Smith <n4zr@contesting.com>
> I think "band plans" is just a fancy name for contest-free zones, which
> are anathema to me, and have to question whether it makes any difference
> in a contest where the main complaint seems to be a lack of activity.
>
> 73, Pete N4ZR
>
> The World Contest Station Database, updated daily at
> www.conteststations.com
> The Reverse Beacon Network at http://reversebeacon.net, blog at
> reversebeacon.blogspot.com,
> spots at telnet.reversebeacon.net, port 7000
>
>
>
> On 10/3/2011 9:08 AM, Barry Merrill, W5GN wrote:
> > I commend SAC's plan to enforce band plans.
> >
> > And I don't want SAC (or any of the "work only this region/country")
> > contests to change; there are plenty of other opportunities to have
> > your high rates in those work-anyone-contests, by BROADCASTING from
> > your powerful station and run, run, run to win.
> >
> > These point-to-point contests are for S&P enthusiasts, who
> > have as much or more fun than run-able stations, but at
> > slower rates, so we enjoy the contest more, and don't
> > require the high power and big antennas to score well.
> >
> > They somewhat level the ground between the run-able and S&P-oriented
> > stations.
> >
> > And you don't have to rotate your antennas, either!
> >
> > As a primary CW operator, in years gone by, prior to the skimmers,
> > I totally enjoyed being the first station to spot those in the
> > contest region, from my locality, as a test of my receive ability.
> > Now, I can only do that when (rarely) on the other mode, but it's
> > still fun to compete in that "sub-contest".
> >
> > And now, I can choose to operate with spots to give higher QSO counts
> > (and a multiplier when at EI/W5GN) to the in-region competitors
> > or I can do the same at a slower rate when I choose to be just
> > a boy and his radio, finding the pileups myself and fighting to
> > get thru.
> >
> > And I totally like serial numbers - that way I can recognize the serious
> > competitors in the contest region and go out of my way to work them,
> > and can skip those massive pileups for newbies on Sunday with their
> > double digit serial numbers (or come back to them later when the spot
> > duration has expired and their pileup is gone).
> >
> > 73
> >
> > Barry W5GN
> >
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> >
> >
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