[UK-CONTEST] Jubilee Contest

[Ed Taylor, G3SQX]

Now the dust has settled, and everyone has had time to reflect, let's
reconsider what was achieved by the Jubilee Contest.

Let me say right from the beginning that I don't really think it has the
"legs" to become a permanent fixture.  Even though I spent quite a bit of
time trying to publicise it, I am not convinced that this is a new contest
that everyone is itching for.  Perhaps the GQ stations had a great time, and
the rest of the world had a lot of fun finding and working them, but that
doesn't mean that a proper contest will emerge.  Let me make a few points
to explain why I think so.


(1)  Not enough Commonwealth stations to work.  This is the major problem.
If the format is going to be "Commonwealth works the rest," you have to
have enough Commonwealth stations to keep the "rest" occupied.  In a one-off
event, stations will patiently wait, and hunt any Commonwealth stations
who happen to be around.  In a real contest, you have to have the
bands lined up, full of Commonwealth stations (both on CW and phone, of
course).  This did not happen, and will not happen any time soon.

A quick back-of-an-envelope calculation shows that if you are in the
Rest Of The World, and you work every Commonwealth station
twice (optimistic), you need to work 750 Commonwealth stations
to achieve 1500 Commonwealth QSOs, and this might be just about
enough to satisfy a single-op.  Each of these 750 would have to be
on the air for 24 hours, and this doesn't seem to me to be realistic.
A real contest would never attract that many Commonwealth stations,
including the (most noticeably absent) VEs, who voted with their feet.
You might say that BERU is successful, and has rates well below that
-- true, but the relaxed pace of BERU is not what people are looking for in
a contest these days.

(2)  The multiplier scheme will never work.  You can divide the UK up any
way you like, but there will never (in the near future) be enough
multipliers to have any tactical impact.  There has to be system whereby
the multipliers are readily available, but not necessarily easy to work.
There have to be enough to maintain people's interest, but the rarity
value has to be present.  As far as I could see, everyone (including me)
was running stations in the Jubilee Contest, and nobody was really trying
to find multipliers.  The reason was that there weren't any! -- well,
not enough to go hunting.  This would change in a real contest, but the
fact that working 50 Commonwealth band-call areas was next to
impossible speaks volumes.

(3)  The rare stations that we said would participate never materialised.
Unless we can persuade the Commonwealth to pay attention, we cannot
make stations such as 5Xs and ZD9s come on the air.  In fact, much of
the Commonwealth is "uninhabited" as far as amateur radio is concerned,
and those countries that have a few expats are generally not
contest-minded.

(4)  Why won't a "Commonwealth works the Rest" contest gradually become
successful?  After all, the IOTA Contest has had a short life, but has
become a fixture in the calendar.  Two main reasons, I think.

First, the IOTA Contest has built on a record of dxpeditions during the
summer from IOTA enthusiasts, who would probably activate an island
somewhere in any case.  The mainly European nature of IOTA, and the fairly
large number of European islands has meant that lots of people go and become
"DX for a Day" over the IOTA Contest weekend.  By contrast, there is little
likelihood of expeditions to rare Commonwealth locations for a future
contest, partly because there are hardly any Commonwealth countries within
(or close to) Europe.  Indigenous participation is inadequate, and
dxpeditions are unlikely.  There is really no possible way of maintaining an
adequate supply of good DX and multipliers from the Commonwealth, in
contrast to the IOTA scheme.

Second, the IOTA Contest allows QSOs between non-island stations, at lower
point value.  The equivalent would be to let non-Commonwealth stations work
each other in a "Commonwealth works the Rest" contest, scoring (say) 1 point
instead of 5.  This would certainly give everybody a steady stream of people
to work, but I would reject the idea pretty much out of hand.  There are
already far too many contests where "Everybody works Everybody, and
Ruritanian Provinces are Multipliers."  If we can't get our troops out for
24 hours to support a home-grown contest, we have no right to expect
everyone else to come on the air and provide substitute QSOs.

By the way, the IOTA Contest rule allowing everyone to work everyone has
been debated over the years.  I don't think the time is right to restrict
that contest so that non-island stations can only work islands.  Despite the
growing popularity of the contest, there are really not enough island
stations around to keep non-island stations occupied for 24 hours.  The
parallels with a possible "Commonwealth works the Rest" contest are quite
clear.



The bottom line is this -- if we insist on creating a contest where the
Commonwealth works the rest, we will have another 21/28 or 7 MHz contest on
our hands.  These events are fine for the G stations, who will work casual
callers all day long, but would have little interest for anyone else.  I
don't see this situation changing in the near future.

I was hopeful before the Jubilee Contest, but now think that we were
pushing our luck (bit like the World Cup, really).  Amateur Radio does
not need another "major" contest, particularly one with inadequate
support from the folks who are supposed to be sponsoring it
(i.e. the Commonwealth).

Let's acknowledge that the Jubilee Contest was fun, but now encourage
more people into the RSGB's genuine Flagship Contest, IOTA.
I know that it does not have universal approval among UK contesters,
to some extent because many IOTA operators are poor contest operators.
However, this is improving, and if more good UK contesters made an
effort, things would get better.  The scoring system is not to everyone's
taste, and there are probably still too many sections, but it works, with
good points as well as bad.  I don't think it's too much to ask every UK
contester to make an effort to enter the IOTA Contest for 12 hours.  If we
could get as many G stations on the air for the IOTA Contest as there were
for the Jubilee, the contest would be transformed.

I also think that the HFCC should get behind some interesting non-RSGB
contests: WAE and the European Sprints.  Let's support these with
trophies and certificates (and publication of results?), because each
one has its own unique format.  WAE, in particular, has plenty of
scope for tactics, and rewards accurate copying.  The Sprints are
ideal for anyone who likes AFS, but with a twist which makes them suddenly a
bit more difficult.

Thanks to the HFCC for running the Jubilee Contest, enjoyed by everybody.
We can have another in ten years' time, and then let's just call it a QSO
Party!

73,

Ed, G3SQX