[CQ-Contest] FD observations and suggestion

[Roger Parsons]

I was brought into contesting through National Field
Day in the UK. That was, and is, an out and out (CW
only) contest, was by far my favourite event of the
year, and I miss it almost (but not quite) as much as
English pubs. When I moved to Canada I was horrified
to find that our local club saw Field Day as an
opportunity to get together, chew the rag, munch a few
burgers.

Over the past 10 years I guess I have mellowed a
little, but this year we finally had an all-out effort
which resulted in a doubling of our previous best ever
score. But we also had a GOTA station with equal
equipment and antennas to our two main stations.
EVERBODY had a wonderful time. One of our GOTA
operators stayed up all night with a happy grin on his
face - he made over 100 contacts which was probably
more than he had previously ever made on hf.

The only change I would make to the rules is to remove
the 15 minute band/mode change prohibition. That rule
means that 160m is effectively not used and that one
is very careful about 10m. I know about octopusses
(octopi?), but it is a shame that one cannot move to
an underused band, have a couple of quick contacts and
move back again.

73 Roger
VE3ZI/G3RBP



	
	
		
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