[CQ-Contest] HQ Stations in IARU

[Franki ON5ZO]

> Jim George N3BB wrote:
> I don't know if the HQ stations' participation encourages more of the
> general or casual operators to get on the air,

For the UBA, OP0HQ has brought together about 45 operators from 10 stations. It's 
safe to say that if there had been no HQ operation in Belgium, only 3 or 4 would have 
gone Single Op, maybe only two of those (one of which yours truly) for a 24h full 
effort.
Now there are over 12k QSO from OP0HQ with the UBA mult in the logs, those SO logs 
would have only brought 3k QSO, and no mult (zone 27 is omnipresent).
The knife cuts both ways...

Our intention was not to go out and win the contest - DARC has the reputation of 
being unbeatable for some reason. Our goal was to bring together Belgium's biggest 
and most active stations and see what we could do. We have achieved that goal. 
Everyone had been working hard before the contest (extra antennas, extra hardware, 
monitoring propagation well in advance etc). During the contest there was maximum 
focus on rate and everyone is very happy that we pulled this one off without any real 
problems. We have learned a lot, too. For major HQ's this might be business as usual 
but for the UBA it means that we have won our own contest   ;o)

> but I do know that the explosion of European HQ stations continues to tilt the 
> contest
> away from an ITU Zone-based multiplier system that is fair to everyone, and
> overwhelms that with a cluster of EU-centric HQ mults that make the contest
> one that requires an east coast presence in North America to compete,

For the record; OP0HQ has worked 16% US stations, 13% Germany, 8% EU Russia and 7% 
Poland. JA only 1,4%.

> Steve London N2IC wrote:
>>20 years ago, before HQ stations were added, this was a great contest.
>>Now we have many HQ stations engaging in extremely unethical operating
>>practices, which seem to be getting worse each year. How does the
>>contesting community and amateur radio benefit from this ?

That was the initial message that started this thread! The fact that some HQ's seem 
to win this one by all means. While they would probably win with less means too... 
but that would/could/should make the others feel less disadvantaged.

>>There have been several more unintended consequence of having HQ stations:
>>
>>Instead of Europe being 5 Zone multipliers, it now has 5 Zones, and 20+
>>HQ country multipliers. For USA stations, IARU has just become another
>>East Coast-works-Europe QSO party, thanks to the availability of ~25 EU
>>mults on each band.  Activity from other parts of the world has dropped
>>precipitously. Also, notice that the World winners are now in, or near
>>Europe. 20+ years ago, it was possible to win this contest from South
>>America.

I have to take your word on this one Steve, my history in Ham Radio only goes back 6 
years... Although I must admit: after doing IARU four times as SO or M/S, this truly 
is a very nice contest that has it all just like RDXC (rate, mode of choice, DX), the 
benefit of which is lost when operating a band/mode position in a HQ station.

73 de Franki ON5ZO