[UK-CONTEST] IOTA contest debate

[YU1WC Vladimir Ljubojevic 'Fric']

Hello there,

This was my firs IOTA contest (24h cw lp), and I enjoyed it. Being a 
non-island contester, I would like to give my opinion about the changes of 
the rules proposed by Les, G3VQO.

I do not like the proposed zero points for non-island to non-island 
contacts. Simply, there is not enough IOTA activity to have fun all 24 
hours, especially if single-mode. For us non-islanders, contacts with IOTA 
stations bring 15 points and maybe a multiplier, instead of only 3 points 
for a non-island contact. For obtaining a good score, it is essential to 
concentrate on IOTA stations because of the points and multipliers. The 
results from 2002 show quite a number of non-iota stations with numerous 
qsos but relatively low score, since they did not pay enough attention to 
IOTA contacts... (probably they kept calling cq and enjoying the high 
rates). Russian DX contest has a similar philosophy (10 versus 1 points in 
favour of contacts with Russian stations), and choosing the best strategy 
ads to the fun.

Separating the CW and SSB events could be a bad idea, since that would lead 
to lower activity (mostly on the cw part I guess). Most IOTA contesters 
planned their holidays to operate, and most of them cannot go to holidays 
twice to operate both in CW and SSB. It was frustrating to know that there 
were many IOTAs I could not get during the contest because they operated 
mostly (or exclusively) on SSB, but there is little one can do about it 
(except maybe suggesting double points for cw contacts for IOTA stations).

73 de Fric YU1WC