[CQ-Contest] WRTC revisiting

[Vladimir V. Sidorov]

Gents,

Isn't it time to change a subject and to touch something else? The old poor
horse named SO2R vs SO1R is dead long long ago.

The recent WRTC is history. People say, another one to come, so let's be
prepared for that.

Something has to be done with the WRTC concept, and it has to be done
soonest possible. Otherwise we can again be faced sudden changes of rules,
weird selection criteria and other quite strange decisions.

Why not to appoint a group of people to take basic decisions. Moreover, as
we have seen, there is one already. Why not to ask this widely respected
people to start working right now. Let them invite more people, if
necessary. But something has to be done right now.

If we have a few years till the next event, potential participants should
already know several simple rules:

- What secection criteria will be used.
People will clearly know what contests to pay extra attention to and what
else to do in order to be eligible for participation.

- Who will take the selection.
If some local national commitees or so will be involved, then people will
first elect proper people into the commitees well in advance so that nobody
complains on personal tastes, etc.

- Where the competition will take place.
At least a continent can be chosen in advance. It was more than clear that
the year 2006 means the minimum of solar activity. Was it really a good idea
to bring teams to South America and then break heads thinking, how to fight
poor props and long distances to "run" ares, and finally to involve PAs and
directive 40 m antennas? Why not to stick on, say, Europe or North America
with their higher "run potential" but to keep the "Tribander and 100 W"
principle of the previous WRTCs.
Besides, budget and time planning aspects should also be taken into account.
It is not really easy to rise necessary funds for a long distance trip and
find a week or two of free time if people is only selected for participation
just a few months before that.

- Having clear basic information regarding to-be-participants, potential
organizers will feel themselves easier in respect of fund rising and other
stuff. At least it will be much easier for them to decide whether they are
able to handle the event or not.

There are other serious question marks, but the said group knows them well
themselves. I would add something else, but will only limit myself by an
idea to go from the geographical principle, like, the country X is worth Y
participants because it is worth so by default. Take a look at results of
the last 3 WRTCs and start from the bottom. You will see, as a rule, the
very bottom positions in the final results are taken by teams selected by
this principle. In the meantime real good operators cannot get to the
event... It was really sad for me because I'been trying to put an EU-EW team
for the WRTCs as of the Slovenian one and all in vain...

Anyway, it's about time to establish clear rules for all coming WRTCs. So
far we only have rules established by every inviting country, and every time
the rules are different.

Isn't it really something to think about right now?

73,

Vladimir VE3IAE - EU1SA