[UK-CONTEST] The EURO (European Union Radio Open) - Long!

[Paul O'Kane]

There wasn't much response to my proposal, just two - both
broadly in favour.

I've experimented a bit with SD to see what would work, and
here's my detailed recommendation for a new contest.  If it
were to be adopted by the RSGB, it could replace the two 21/28
MHz contests in October.  I think any replacement contest
would be more viable on the first weekend, as otherwise it
might be too close to CQWW at the end of the month.


The EURO (European Open) - from 2004.

Date:      First full weekend in October.

Time:      1200 UTC Saturday to 1159 Sunday

Modes:     CW, SSB or Mixed.

Bands:     5 bands from 80m to 10m.

Exchange:  Serial

Sections:  1. European Union (EU)
           2. DX - any station not in the European Union.

           Note: European Union stations are not necessarily
           in the continent of Europe.  For example, Cyprus
           is normally considered to be in Asia. 

           DX refers to any station not located in a European
           Union county, including non-European Union countries
           in Europe.

           The European Union countries (from 2004) are
           5B Cyprus       HA Hungary          OM Slovakia
           9H Malta        I  Italy            ON Belgium
           CT Portugal     LX Luxembourg       OZ Denmark
           DL Germany      LY Lithuania        PA Netherlands
           EA Spain        M  United Kingdom   S5 Slovenia
           EI Ireland      OE Austria          SM Sweden
           ES Estonia      OH Finland          SP Poland
           F  France       OK Czech Republic   SV Greece
                                               YL Latvia
       
Scoring:   European Union: 10 points per QSO - work everyone.
           DX: 10 points per QSO - Work European Union only.

Bonus:     50 points for the the first QSO with each
           European Union Call Area (10 per country)
           plus, for European Union entrants, the first
           QSO with each DX country.

           The "first QSO" means the first QSO on eacb
           band and each mode, if applicable.

Call Areas:
           Each European Union country will have, at most,
           10 call areas - represented by the relevant digit
           of the callsign prefix.

           All "countries" (if more than one) in a European
           Union country count as one.

           For example:
           Corsica counts as France.
           Sardinia and Sicily count as Italy.
           Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man,
           and Channel Islands count as United Kingdom.
           Azores counts as Portugal.
           Balearics, Canaries, Ceuta, Melilla count as Spain.
           Crete and Mt. Athos count as Greece.

To summarise, I see this as a high-rate contest in which
European Union entrants can work everyone, with no particular
advantage accruing to any country, and where DX (outside the
European Union) can work European Union stations only.

It's all very well coming up with a new set of rules, but
nothing much will happen (these days) if there's not software
to support it - to recognise EU call areas and DX countries
and to track bonuses correctly.

SD does this, and I've developed two country files, EURO.CTY
and EURODX.CTY, to track bonuses as defined above.  Should
the RSGB adopt and promote this contest, I'm prepared to make
available a free version of SD for at least the first two
years of the event.

If anyone would like to try SD now, you can download an
updated version (V10.01), size 556 kb, from 
http://www.ei5di.com/sd/sdeuro.zip. If you're not currently
registered, you'll be limited to 30 QSOs.  If you have SD
already, keep (and unzip) SDEURO in a separate folder.  No
earlier version of SD, including V9.99, will load EURO.CTY.

Here's the setup information.

Select SD Type 9 - General, Country Multipliers.
.CTY File         : EURO   (for EU)
                    EURODX (for DX)
Multipliers Count : B (by band)
Points per QSO    : 10
Pts/Bonus         : 50
Mode              : CW or SSB (your initial mode)
Mixed-Mode        : Y or N
If mixed -
 Mults count on
      both modes  : Y (actually bonuses)
 Work same station
   on both modes  : Y 

If there's a preference for multipliers rather than bonuses,
and if multipliers or bonuses should count once only, SD can
handle it by varying the responses above.  SD is intended for
single-op unassisted entries.  It does not support packet or
networking.

73,
Paul EI5DI