[TOEC] The future for Scandinavian Cup in SAC Contest?

[Mats Strandberg]

Hello all Scandinavian/Nordic contesters!

A few days remain until the logs for SAC SSB 2010 has to be submitted.

We can however already now see that Finland has an exceptionally high points
per log advantage. This proves that OH is more endurant in SAC than any
other Scandinavian country. It also (most likely) proves that there is more
aluminium at a higher height in the Finnish locations compared to other
Scandinavian countries.

Congratulations to Finland for excellent score with considerably fewer
operators!  (see below)

Sweden is the OVERALL winner for the second year in row thanks to an
excellent amount of logs (more than half of the logs totally are Swedish).
Also the strong average point per log in the CW section made Sweden a
successful country already when the CW section was over.

The reason for this email is to open the discussion how we can improve SAC
in the eyes of Non-Scandinavian participants - and also to inspire other
countries than Sweden and Finland to have a higher participation in SAC.

Sweden, Finland (with Aland and Market Reef) represent not less than 90% of
all logs in SAC. This is NOT a good sign that participation from all
Scandinavian countries is more or less equal or representative to the amount
of hams in each country.

How can we stimulate our Norwegian and Danish friends to be better active in
SAC???

Iceland has on average quite a good participation in SAC, but 7 and 5
million points in SAC from Norway and Denmark seems at least to me as a sign
of non-sufficient promotion for contesting in those countries.

The Scandinavian Cup was initiated to be a stimulator for national
competition within the Scandinavian/Nordic countries, but what we have seen
the past years is a development where SM and OH is fighting for the 1st and
2nd place, and where LA is always at a safe third place, and where OZ is
more or less fighting for the 4th place with OH0 (despite the fact that
Aland Islands has only 1/5 th (20 %) if the logs compared to OZ...

This is not a satisfactory situation according to my personal opinion.

Shall we remove the Scandinavian Cup from the SAC?  Shall we create a
"Finnkampen" concept where only SM and OH is competing (like in Athletics) -
or shall we try to boost the activity from ALL NORDIC/SCANDINAVIAN countries
the next year (SAC 2011) ???

Norway and Denmark in this case need to make a FULL EFFORT in changing the
situation and by encouraging new hams to the field of contesting. I think
that active contesters in both Norway and Denmark agree that the potential
for improvement is huge...

We are ready to help with ideas and suggestions. The Swedish improvement is
not based on huge investment in aluminium and steel, but rather a logical
development of raised promotion for contesting as such.

Please have a look at www.hfcup.se and see that close to 300 Swedish
contesters are active in International contests on a regular basis. Such
similar national contests could also stimulate the participation in contests
from all other Scandinavian counties. It is only to "copy and paste" our
idea.  Steal with pride is another way to express it...

If we can increase the total amount of Scandinavian  logs in SAC from the
present 544 logs to, let us say 750 logs, the interest for SAC will increase
accordingly... This does not seem like an impossible figure, BUT it requires
active promotion from the HF Contest Managers in all the countries.

73 de R3/SM6LRR, Mats

SAC 2010 Scandinavian Cup (CW & SSB)
- Claimed Score

  *Nr* *Country* *Number of logs* *Score* 1 Sweden 287 44.310.431 2 Finland
136 36.013.350 3 Norway 66 7.229.178 4 Denmark 35 4.911.727 5 Aland Islands
8 4.543.473 6 Iceland 6 1.611.586 7 Faroe Islands 3 543.896 8 Greenland 1
507.964 9 Svalbard 1 332.785 10 Market Reef 1 13.615