[UK-CONTEST] IOTA - to run or not to run....

[Clive Whelan]

> I know it's the rules and this is an old argument that gets kicked off every
> July but I can understand the World stations frustration !   I know the
> emphasis is meant to be on working IOTA stations, and not World working
> World, but I'm an Island entrant who's about to consider almost complete S+P
> next year !  It certainly makes things interesting anyway.
>


I'm all for high mult ratios ( includes WAE/QTCs effectively), as a foil to 
the "ratefests" of CQWW ( ask GW4BLE), and particularly CQWPX ( ask me!) where 
every third QSO on average is a mult, and searching for them is utterly 
pointless. However going too far the other way is not an option imo, and IOTA 
is probably in such a bind. If Lee were to adopt the strategy outlined above ( 
and it may well be correct for him ), and say he goes to a "rare" IOTA, then 
that IOTA effectively becomes unavailable to the "world", hardly likely to 
increase their enthusiasm for the event.

Remember that two stations doing 100% S&P will never even hear each other! 
This was brought home forcibly to me a few years back when I was even more 
antenna challenged than I am today, and further ran only 100 watts. Even 
though "running" was painfully slow, and I could *always* make more Qs per 
hour in S&P than run mode, say 60 p.h. with wet string, I simply had to "put 
myself about", otherwise there were certain mults that I never got. This was a 
lesson hard in the learning, and quite counter intuitive at the time.

I therefore propose that this issue should be addressed. It might be countered 
that IOTA ain't broke , and don't need fixing. However despite the undoubted 
enthusiasm for the event expressed by the aficionados, the event still has 
something of an image problem with serious contesters, and this needs to be 
addressed if a good contest is to make the leap forward into the major league; 
I'm sure we all want that.

The secret of mega traditional events  ( e.g. Wimbledon) which "never change", 
is that indeed they have changed, and continue so to do imperceptibly, such 
that their popularity is enduring. I believe this is very clever marketing, 
and there is no reason why the RSGB should not emulate such a long term 
strategy for IOTA.

QRK Don?


73


Clive
GW3NJW
gw3njw at gw7x.org
Contest Cambria-http://www.gw7x.org