[UK-CONTEST] IOTA - G3BJ (G5W)

[Ray Goff]

Interesting comments!

As part of the G5XV team on EU120, I can make a couple of observations:

First, we were a multi-op station, so we were actively searching for
multipliers throughout the contest with the second rig in the hopes of
boosting our score. Interestingly, this year we were not alone on EU120
which is probably one reason why we are down on mults compared to a similar
setup last year, the EU120 multipliers were shared out between the stations
on EU120. The moral of this is that if you are on EU005, EU115 or any other
highly populated IOTA reference, you are less likely to be called by other
IOTA stations for multiplier points, so the best technique is probably to
search and pounce IOTA stations, which judging by some of our pileups would
be challenge to QRP stations.

A second and more frustrating reason, for the mult station op, is that lots
of run stations do not announce their IOTA reference when calling CQ. As a
result in the later stages of the contest you can sit listening to a station
for extended periods waiting patiently for somebody to work it to see if it
is a new multiplier reference. We tried to compensate as much as possible
for this in the software by tracking all stations and their IOTA references,
but short of asking the station for its reference (which it is unclear if
that is permitted in the rules) there is nothing that you can do but wait!
We also noticed that stations sometimes forgot to include the IOTA reference
in the exchange even though out logging software had tracked their IOTA
reference. This could lead to lost potential mults if the mult station
passed it over.

As to whether any rule changes are required, I really have no comments.

73

Ray, G4FON