[UK-CONTEST] More Field Day Stats...!

[Nigel Cawthorne]

Hullo UK Contesters,

Selective stats can prove almost anything. Here are some more.

The G-0AAA/p Field Day QSO total figures for the past
eight/nine years are:

1994 : 886
1995 : 901
1996 : 877
1997 : 966
1998 : 900
1999 : 1,058
2000 : 1,080
2001 : 852
2002 :1,122

If the 2001 figure is ignored (there wasn't any UK CW NFD that year),
the total GROWTH in activity is over 26%, or about 4% p.a.

There appears to be a contradiction here.

The UK's participation in the CW Field Day is declining, as 
measured by the number of G-Clubs submitting logs, whereas the
overall activity in the "European CW Field Day weekend" would
appear to be increasing, as evidenced by the above QSO data.

The current CW Field Day suffers the disadvantage that it is,
in fact, an amalgm of several different national events. This
is a mess (for historic reasons) which is arguably having a 
detrimental effect on the future growth of Field Day activity.

One possible way to make the European CW Field Day an even
bigger event would be for it to become a truly European/Region 1
event - i.e that the two powerhouses of the current disparate events
i.e the RSGB and the DARC get together to combine the best of
both events so that we have one major European CW Field Day
where (a) there is a common scoring system, (b) there is a common
results tabulation and (c) where "portable" stations, both EU/p and 
non-EU/p, are the centre-piece of the scoring/multiplier system 
[and not just any fixed 'DXCC multiplier' country as is currently the 
case in both the RSGB SSB FD and the DARC's CW Field Day.]

The focus in Field Day should be working other /p stations both
local and DX. The scoring/multiplier system should reflect this,
just like the scoring/multiplier system in the IOTA Contest
focuses totally on 'island stations'.

The Scandinavians make a really good job of rotating the 
adjudication of the SAC Contest between the four Societies.
Maybe the RSGB and the DARC (and others) could rotate the 
the task of adjudicating the European CW Field Days.

[Although we didn't arrive at a concensus view, the above were
some of the observations on Field Day that were made during
a recent Three A's G0AAA celebratory dinner at the local Indian!].

73 - Nigel G3TXF