[UK-CONTEST] Planning for 2004 ?

[Andy]

Hi everyone

I thought you might be interested in the views of someone who is relatively
new to contesting.

1 - Like a lot of people I am constrained by space and myself and my son
(M0TTT) actually have to operate all our contests from a portable QTH and
set up the station and then take it down afterwards. We do not have much
space for aerials and do not have anything up for top band, we therefore
cannot be competitive in contests which include 160m. There must be a lot of
people in a similar situation with maybe a simple wire or just a tri bander
who would appreciate some sort of class that allows them to be competitive.
Maybe a pick and mix of bands with maybe 3 or 4 bands of the operators
choice.

2 - The RSGB 21/28 MHz contest has been tried on a couple of occasions but
will not be entered again after last years rather painful experience of just
a few hundred qso's all contest.

3 - The Jubilee contest was great fun but a similar format would struggle
without the added draw of the Q prefix.

4 - A class which allowed small groups of people to enter competively as a
team would be a good idea, there are probably quite a few groups / clubs
that would enter a multi single class that was just that single transmitter,
with no mult station required.

5 - Limited hours of operating would be a definite attraction, why should
the ability to deprive yourself of sleep give you an advantage in contests.

6 - The two contests which have given me the most fun and pleasure are the
IARU HF world champs and the ARRL 10m contest both operating M/S with my
son.

7 - A contest within a contest would probably be the best idea, but the
rules should be made so that if a person wanted to do a full contest entry
they could. For example if it was a 48 hr contest like CQWW then the UK
contest would be the first 24 hrs if there was to be a time restriction.
Allowing the person/persons to continue and do a full contest entry if they
desire. If it was to be less than 24 hrs make it during the first day so
that activity would be up and the operator doing a full entry could still
submit a log into the UK contest without being at a big disadvantage.

8 - Why are there so few multi operator entries from the UK ?

73 Andy M5ZAP