[UK-CONTEST] 21/28Mhz, the future?

[Alan Jubb - 5B4AHJ]

Hi to all 

As someone who has entered this (the 21/28 CW) contest for the last 2 years, I would like to put some views from the DX end of the contest.

a) Agreed this is not the most exciting of contests, but nevertheless I still enjoy it and would be very sorry to see it decline further and see it eventually go. From my perspective, there seemed to be more UK activity this year than last year. I don't know about the DX end.

b) The clash with WAG is a real problem at the DX end. Invariably calling CQ RSGB TEST or even CQ G results in numerous calls from DLs, which is a real pain. Also the DLs tend to be much stronger than the Gs, so I have to listen for weak Gs under a wall of S9 DLS. This makes it tough going. This was a bigger problem last year than this year.

c) 10m is the band that makes this an interesting contest at the DX end. To those who say that 10m is a waste of time, I would totally disagree. This year 35.6% of my QSOs were on 10m. Finding the 10m openings is what can give a DX station the edge over another DX station and makes the contest interesting. I think I would be unlikely to enter a 15m only contest. I don't think that Gs listen enough on 10m. Early afternoon last Sunday there was a great opening to most parts of the UK including GM (no GD/GI heard) when signals were S9++, but I still spent quite a bit of time calling CQ without any answer.

d) I would be happy to have a joint phone/cw contest.

e) To those who say condx were bad this year, they were hugely better than last year. I made 50% more QSOs this year compared to last year. However there's nothing we can do about condx!

SO, if the contest is to be re-vamped I would say:

a) Avoid the clash with WAG. The first weekend in October sounds fine.
b) Retain 10m to make the contest more appealing to DX stations.
c) I would support merging the phone and cw contests


Alan Jubb 5B4AHJ - P3J