[UK-CONTEST] Developing NFD

[G3SXW]

Dear UK-Contest,
NFD would be even more fun if QSO volumes were higher.
There are just not enough stations to work.
One way to build activity might be to make it a truly Europe
-wide contest. At present there are lots of UK and DL
stations and some from HB9 and ON, but nearly all other
countries are very sparsely represented. Why? Because
EA or OK or OH entrants have nowhere to send their logs
and no-one to compete against. At present each country
runs its own event and only UK and DL has enough entrants
to make a competitive event.
There is something called 'IARU Region 1 Field Day' but
this seems to exist only in name. Efforts to unify the timing
were successful some years ago, but scoring has never
been standardised. In UK it is a portable contest (double-
points) whereas in Germany it is a DX contest (country
mults, like our SSB event in September).
But having different scoring-systems isn't a problem these
days because computerisation means that the organisers
re-score your raw log - you send in QSO details, they compute
the score for you. So, it is now simple for organisers to re-
score your log on any set of scoring-rules, and publish the
results in more than one format.
At present we (G0AAA/P) send our log to RSGB and also
to DARC just for fun. So, DARC are already doing the job
(and with great efficiency, results published within six weeks).
All it would take would be for the IARU Region 1 Contest Co-
Ordinator to promote the event and provide awards, in
collaboration with DARC. In parallel with our national results
(based on our own scoring-system) there could be a Europe-
wide listing, plus a listing for any other country with enough
entrants, (based on an IARU points-system).
It's almost a no-brainer - so easy to accomplish.
Then the Field Day spirit could blossom in Latvia and
Greece and Portugal just as in UK and Germany, with all the
fantastic benefits which only FD can offer.
How about it IARU?
73 de Roger/G3SXW.