[CQ-Contest] Field Day Proposal

[Ted & Joyce Wilhelm]

After a sucessful Field Day event and reading some of the good
suggestion I have seen offered here how about the posibility of letiing
us contesters turn this into a full recognized contest and let the clubs
that want to Elmer and help and introduce the newbies to contesting do
so but by using another call sign...Break this thing into 2 categories
thus allowing the the contesters to avoid having to mess with bonus
points etc....Then let the bigger clubs run 2 different entries, one for
the serious contestors and one for the guys out to have a good time . I
think this is a great time to introduce new contesters to the heat of
the battle but is a problem for those who want to make a good showing
point wise...This might be hard to get the ARRL to go along with as they
repeatedly say it is not a contest but I am a firm believer if you take
away the competition factor the event will suffer greatly...Dan
Henderson disagrees with me as showen in the following example.
 part of message to Dan Henderson

".With all the BOGUS points err oops Bonus
point categories that keep gettig added to this contest its making it
tuffer each year to comply and show a decent score..I know this is not
supposed to be a contest but without the competition factor I'm sure you
will agree it someday may be a thing of the past.....I along with a lot
of others question why some of these points are being awarded...We fully
agree with the premise behind the contest to introduce amatuer radio in
a good loght to the public and can see the value of it for an emergency
preparedness drill but I'll be damned if we can figure out who is going
to use ATV and SSTV in times of emergencies...."

his reply
RE: Field Day Ruling ("Henderson, Dan N1ND" , 6/6/01 6:42)
To: 
    "'k9huh at icss.net'" <k9huh at icss.net>


Hi Ted:

Actually Field Day is not considered a contest. We do not issue awards
of
any type for the event and do not do any type of log checking per se
(since
only dupe sheets are required). We consider it as an operating event. 
And
since it is the most popular ARRL event of any kind, involving over
30,000
persons annually I would respectfully have to distance myself from the
supposition that in its current form that it will one day be a thing of
the
past.  We try to downplay the "competition" side of Field Day as much as
possible.  Using such things as bonus points, Field Day is designed to
encourage participation, test emergency preparedness, and be a
demonstration
of amateur radio capability to the non-ham community."

 I think we might have a long fight on our hands for any changes but
maybe somebody out there will take note and make suggestions.....
TED K9HUH


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