[UK-CONTEST] IOTA - G3BJ (G5W)

[Jim Martin]

No there is not enough incentive Don!
My 706 and Butternut HF6V could make no impression on the bands for long
periods during the contest (the MP was in the same boat!).  There was
minimal advantage in being the sole mult on EU92, it seems the nature of the
contest is that most of the big loud sigs are not mult hunting!  They occupy
about 5 KC/s of the band with their disgusting signals and call CQ for 24
hours. IOTA is in danger of becoming just another  '5nn TU' type contest
unless we can rescue its 'unique selling point'  I can't run a KW on the
Summer Isles and the mobile towers don't fit on the 20 foot fishing boat
which takes me across!  The HF6V and 80m dipole at 12 feet do me just fine.
If its bad for me then the bigger stations who have tremendous expense and
trouble to move all the kit off shore for the contest must feel it even
harder.  We need to return the focus to island stations and reward the
island stations and activators.
 I have no solutions but hope for a good debate over the coming months to
carry on the recent improvements in the contest.
A few thoughts which rattled round in my head as I fought the midges for
possession of my HF6V were:
As an 'islands' contest it should be about finding and working island
stations!  How do we get this message across to our land locked operators
who run mega power and use wet string as RX antennas?  Possibly for some the
buzz of working the pileup and logging the Qs has taken over.
Is there any point in clogging up the bands on yet another weekend with this
same type of contest?
If we made it easier for 'avaerage' stations to work more island stations
would this not increase the popularity and participation in the contest?
Much tighter log checking and penalties to discourage the 'ESP' mode of
reception.  Many stations will be missing an EU92 mult because I could not
get them to acknowledge my report.  I wipe these contacts from my log and
try for the QSO later.
How many times did you sit and listen to someone working a pileup this
weekend only to discover after 10 Qs without him sending his call you find
you have been listening to a dupe?  Let's take a lead from other successful
contests and make your own call part of the exchange. That is about
improving quality!
Hopefully a little piece entitled 'Two Bulls and No Balls' -  IOTA
contesting from the Summer Isles, will be in a digest near you soon and then
on the website with photographs.
Jim  MM0BQI

--- Original Message ----- 
From: "Don Beattie" <g3ozf at btinternet.com>
To: "Uk-Contest at Contesting.Com" <uk-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 27, 2003 5:21 PM
Subject: [UK-CONTEST] IOTA - G3BJ (G5W)

Don Beattie wrote, "I  wonder if there is enough incentive in the rules to
encourage folks to pack an IC706/Butternut and go to some more of the remote
(or at least not too active) isles. My mult list for Europe shows a
concentration of activity on a relatively small number of the European
islands.
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