[CQ-Contest] IOTA Contest Scoring

[Don Field]

Further to my recent email, we have had a quick rethink on scoring for
contacts with non-island (world) stations, as it quickly became apparent
from feedback that we had missed a trick here, for which I must offer my
apologies.

The rules ( http://www.rsgbcc.org/hf/rules/2012/riota.shtml ) now reflect
the new scoring.

To summarise, in years gone by all contacts with non-island stations were
worth 5 points (later 3 points) but as we have progressively reduced the
scoring for non-island to non-island contacts, it is clear that, in the
process, we have disincentivised island to non-island contacts, which is
obviously not what was intended. So these will now count 5 points, while
non-island to non-island contacts are, as previously announced, 2 points.

There has also been some reaction to the QSY rule. This is now clarified in
the wording. It is a matter of some regret that we have had to introduce
this, but some multi-op entrants were clearly running several "mult"
stations, which is not in the spirit of what was intended. Good strategy
and listening for mults ahead of any QSY should still enable high
multiplier totals to be achieved over the 24 hours. We believe, in any
case, that the rule is more flexible than, for example, the 10-minute rule
in CQ contests.

A write-up of the 2011 contest and preview of 2012 should appear in either
the June or July issues of RSGB's RadCom.

73 Don G3XTT
IOTA Contest Manager