[UK-CONTEST] Consultation - NFD

[Dave Lawley]

Discussions have been taking place with a view to getting more European
countries to participate in CW field day. At the moment only the
date/time are harmonised, though DARC accept entries from any station,
not just DL and several Gs now submit their log to DARC as well as RSGB.
Nothing is cast in concrete yet but essential features of a European CW
field day are likely to include:

1. Expanded number of sections including high power, low power, low
power restricted and QRP

2. Fixed station section

3. Scoring system based on country multipliers rather than double points
on 160/10

4. Packet cluster permitted (actually permitted in NFD now but without
multipliers serves no purpose)

HFCC is very keen to see more portables active from a greater number of
countries but in considering the proposals we are concerned that the
essential nature of NFD may be lost. While uk-contest membership may not
represent the full cross-section of UK contesters with an interest in
NFD now or in the future, this is the best forum we have for gaining
feedback so please let us have your views.

HFCC's concerns are in a number of areas:

1. There is no universal rule that every contest must have multipliers.
The UK scoring scheme is flatter, with less difference between station's
scores, and it spreads activity out to 160 and 10m.

2. To compete in a contest using multipliers, stations would have to be
equipped for packet or telnet.

3. Multipliers hand an advantage to portables in the rarer countries
e.g. GJ who would be guaranteed steady streams of callers. Under the
current rules all UK countries compete on a more equal basis.

4. Fixed station section makes it too easy if you can't find a site or
have difficulty with the generator to give up and operate from home.
Real concern that in a few years most 'field day' stations won't be in a
field at all.

5. No need for greatly increased QSO rates when the majority of entrants
in NFD at the moment don't manage to work all the available stations.

6. Fixed stations, some using excess power and wide signals, may come to
dominate making it harder for smaller field day stations to 'run'. They
will just become QSO fodder for the big boys.

7. Inspections in the UK have ensured that rules are not flouted.
Impossible to guarantee adherence to rules in a continent-wide field
day, could lead to suspicions and resentment.

8. Real difficulty in agreeing common rules on sections and equipment.

9. Disparity of licensed power levels

There would be a number of details to be hammered out. If based on DARC
rules, restricted section height would change from 11m to 15m. Can all
groups manage this greater height or if not would they lose motivation
to enter NFD?

The German restricted section specifies one transceiver with no sub-
receiver, so their leading groups are forced to use TS850 or
similar. There have been several long and painful discussions about
second receiver / sub receiver in NFD on uk-contest, do we want to break
the current concensus?

HFCC's overall responsibility is to RSGB members. Would a change to a
European set of rules attract more G portables? Might it cause loss of
support from those groups happier with the current rules?  There is a
risk we might see UK entry numbers go down, while overall Eu entry goes
up.

If rules defining sections and antenna height can be agreed, what about
the option of HFCC continuing to score entries on the same basis as now,
with the UK listing appearing in Radcom while both the UK and European
listings go on the web. A while ago in the context of CQWW it was
suggested there could be a 'contest within a contest' with UK awards
within the bigger event: applying RSGB rules to a European field day
would achieve something very similar.

Please could you share your thoughts on the reflector, so that HFCC can
feed back views to our European partners by 18th August.

Dave G4BUO
RSGB HF Contests Committee