[UK-CONTEST] G4PIQ/P ARRL CW Report

[Ian White, G3SEK]

Andy Cook, G4PIQ wrote:
>This is a great contest for small stations in the UK to play in - lots 
>of relatively easy stations to work with a multiplier scheme which is 
>effective enough even with a small station. If we're talking about 
>contests which could form the basis of a contest within a contest 
>structure, this (and it's SSB counterpart) could well be one good 
>candidate.

It seems a very good idea to organise some UK competition within the 
framework of existing large world-wide contests - in addition to 
existing domestic contests, of course.

For small nations (and, in activity terms, that includes us) running 
"rest of world works us" contests is very much like running a national 
flag-carrier airline. Eventually, such contests seem doomed to suffer 
the same embarrassing fate - and for exactly the same reason: one  small 
country isn't big enough to make the operation viable.

The biggest difference... and I only mean this sadly, not unkindly... is 
that it's much harder to tell when a contest is going bankrupt.

Instead, let's focus on what we do well. We have a good range of 
domestic contests, some of which are supported very well indeed. On the 
international scale, Britain does make a world-class contribution by 
running the IOTA contest, which is growing nicely.

BERU has its own special place; but the failure of the Jubilee contest 
to really take off on a world scale is a strong argument against 
organising any further Commonwealth-based contest as a regular event.

However, if we are going to explore the possibilities of encouraging UK 
competition within an existing world-wide contest, three points arise. 
The first is whether the admin side can be made to work, as has already 
been discussed. The second is that any such contest should be introduced 
*instead of* one of the existing flag-carrier contests, for the reasons 
I just gave.

Third, is the ARRL contest is the right one to choose? It has three 
major disadvantages: you can only work Ws and VEs; all other DX is 
off-limits for the weekend; and all the strong Europeans (including us) 
are nothing but QRM to one another. This is not a good formula for 
increasing the activity from moderately-equipped G stations.

In contrast, the truly world-wide format of CQWW guarantees continuous 
action for everybody, because almost every station is worth something to 
everyone else. If we are to explore this option, I think CQWW should be 
the first choice.


-- 
73 from Ian G3SEK