[UK-CONTEST] Numbers of G stations entering International contests

[G3SJJ]

Bruce, in many ways I agree with you. From an overseas point of view CC
is a very attractive contest, which is why I think it will survive any
on-slought
us UK Antis will throw at it.

There are three areas which really do puzzle us though :

1 - If I went out tomorrow and spent 25,000 Euros on a 25m high tower, big
rotator, stacked monobanders, phased Titanex, Acom 2000 amp, the Topten
Doubler SO2R controller and was able to match the operating performance of
experienced and leading UK stations, the best I could do, looking at last
year's
results is #13. Hardly any incentive. I would want to compete against you,
John
and Geoff, not other UK stations.

2 - Assuming I did all that and came #13, with all that gear and experience,
I
would only have made just over 300 QSOs compared with around 1000 Qs
made by the top three. The same ratio applies to the restricted section.
Again,
hardly any incentive. You want me to commit to a weekend of "quality" at an
average rate of just 15 QSOs per HOUR. And that is a UK leader, most UK
stations will average less than 10 QSOs per HOUR for the 24 hour duration.

3 - From a UK point of view its is difficult to take this one seriously,
given that
although it is called Commonwealth Contest, most people still call CQ BERU.
A reference to the long gone British Empire. How very quaint. Also,
interestingly
at least 25% of the G callsigns listed would never consider putting an entry
in for
another UK contest. I would not wish to make a Political point, but it does
make
you think that BERU could be replaced by STP. (Save The Pound)! I suspect
any major changes to this event would cause much coughing and spluttering,
and
could results in some old school ties being returned to RSGB HQ in disgust.
(Do you not remember what happenned when the Beatles were awarded the
OBE?)

Your suggestions about making UK call areas awardable for points is valid
and
has been raised many times before (and by myself when I chaired the HF
Contests Committee!). Us Antis would go even further, why can't we work each
other?  There are only two conclusions I have been able to reach during all
the
discussions I have taken part in regarding changing rules :

1 - If the rules were changed, G3FXB would turn in his grave.

2 - Many years of statistics collected by leading stations would become
useless,
thereby negating their leading edge.

I have been unable to extract any other reasons for change. In this I would
agree
with Ed, if it can't be changed then it should go.

73 Chris G3SJJ


> > Yes, and I think that a contest such as BERU fails on this count, even
> > though I don't doubt the skill of the top participants.
>
> There's absolutely NOTHING wrong with the Commonwealth Contest; it's one
of
> my favorite events of the whole year.  With the exception of the FOC
> Marathon, this is the only contest I ever enter where I can count on
> gentlemen behaving like gentlemen and not having to waste cycles defending
> myself against eye-gouging and elbows aimed at the ribs.  Yes, it is a bit
> slow, even from this side of the pond.  But as many experienced hands will
> be quick to point out, this contest is about quality, not quantity.  The
> challenge is not maintaining rate, but being able to catch the interesting
> openings.  I think it's a wonderful contest--I would gladly trade entering
> CQWW for entering BERU any day of the week.
>
> With that said, however, I would cast a vote (were I allowed to do so) to
> treat G/GM/GW/GD/GU as separate call areas.  As has been pointed out
before,
> if VE1 can work VE3 for credit, then it doesn't seem to make a whole lot
of
> sense that G can't work GM.  I think that single change might make it more
> interesting for the folks in the UK...and possibly get more of them active
> as a result.
>
> Bruce, ZF2NT