I think the best approach is a separate contest for digital modes. It's
done on HF, and it's done in other countries. This is not terribly
difficult.
The points per mode approach is doomed to fail I'm afraid. That may be a
solution if there would be an overall lack of activity. Then you can
make a contest more attractive by allowing to work the same station on a
different mode. However, in the areas where the complaints are the
loudest, there is no lack of activity. In fact, the level of activity is
sufficiently high on FT8 to warrant its own contest, and disallow non
burst type digital modes in the "regular" contest.
By doing nothing, or by trying to somehow change the rules of the
current contest to make it more attractive to operate on other modes and
bands, I think you can be assured that the VHF contests will turn into
digital mode contests. I'm OK with that if that happens, but I'd rather
operate both a traditional _and_ a digital mode contest.
Now an enterprising club could take advantage of the current situation
and use it as an opportunity to organize a digital mode contest within
the current contests...
73,
--Alex KR1ST
On 2021-01-20 10:57, Sean Waite wrote:
Personally I don't think that's another contest, and that we need to
find a
way to co-exist inside the same contest. I'm not sure of the best way
to do
that. We have 3 contests in a year - we should try a different approach
on
each one (and yes, I realize there are weather and band conditions that
change these contests) and see what approaches work well and which
don't.
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