Novice Contest

[WA6OTU at PUCK.CALTECH.EDU]

From:   Mark Beckwith, WA6OTU - wa6otu at caltech.edu
To:     Contest Reflector
Date:   May 21, 1994

Some time ago, the Board of Directors asked the Contest Advisory Committee to
come up with way to pump new life into what has become an antiquated Novice
Roundup.  The point is, there should be some sort of 'introductory' contest
for beginners.  Hopefully it would be set up in a way that these beginners
would get bit by 'the bug' and become contesters for life. 

There are going to be some difficulties here, because we're supposed to make
this event include Code-Free Technicians.  Now obviously, since Novices can't
operate the majority of the popular VHF/UHF bands, and the Code-Free Techs
can't operate below 30 MHz, this could get real exciting real fast.  Kind of
like a basketball game and a hockey game going on at the same time trying to 
use the same players.

I am a proponent for two different types of events run at the same time, one
for Novices and one for Code-Free Techs, with separate entries and separate
reports in the same issue of QST.  That way, the basketball game and the 
hockey game would use different players, but would be on TV at the same time,
only on different channels.  I guess an enterprising Tech-Plus could
go out and win BOTH if they were really sharp.  

I would like anyone who is interested to propose a new contest (or two)
designed for this purpose.  Keep your idea short (I guess you should give your
rules lots of 'spirit'), and put it on the reflector.  I hope that within a
week we have honed something nifty.

Thanks for the help, you all.  73,

Mark, WA6OTU

>From Alan Kaul <kaul at netcom.com>  Sun May 22 01:16:24 1994
From: Alan Kaul <kaul at netcom.com> (Alan Kaul)
Date: Sat, 21 May 1994 17:16:24 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Novice Contest
Message-ID: <Pine.3.89.9405211741.A7166-0100000 at netcom6>

Contest idea:  at Field Day last year, we tried something using on-air 
incentive as a way to get no-code Techs involved:  we let them speak into 
the mic and log qso's, etc., under supervision of higher class licensees 
who were ''control operators.''  How about a contest which pairs a novice 
and a no-code tech, or pairs no-code tech and code+tech, etc., or whatever
combination to make it a ''multi-op, single xmtr'' category?  I'd also 
suggest the SSB work on HF is in the higher end of the bands, and for 
starters pick two bands only such as 10M and 40M (light bulb turns on: sked 
it for the weekend before next April 15th and call it Contest 1040, as in 
the tax form!).  Another way to try it would be a hi-lo operating on 10M 
and 160M, but of course, one op would have to have General class or 
higher privileges.  Currently there are a lot of single 
band, and a lot of multi-band but no USA-sponsored dual band events.
GL, 73, 72 de alan
	             [<Alan Kaul, W6RCL>] kaul at netcom.com