[UK-CONTEST] Consultation - NFD

[Clive Whelan]

Dave

I am generally in favour of change,
and by inclination not a Europhobe,
indeed a Europhile. However, while
understanding the desire to have an
integrated European filed day, I
have grave reservations about the
main points as follow.




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

No, let's not make it like WPX and
IOTA where it's very difficult to
see who's competing with whom. Open
and restricted, both at the 100w
level are just fine. Actually, if
anything I tend to favour just one
section, being the restricted. After
all, NFD is all about simplicity,
and is what got most CW ops into
contesting in the first instance.
There are plenty of other
opportunities for high power and
mega antennas, so let's rejoice in
the simplicity of NFD.



<2. Fixed station section>

Absolutely NOT. NFD is about /P
operation, plenty of other contests
on the other 51 weekends



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

No very strong feelings, but I share
HFCC's concerns about the edge this
might grant to the Celtic ( et al)
fringes. However, since G
participants are so heavily
outnumbered by the others already
using mults. does it really matter
that much; the jury is out on that I
think.

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

Absolutely, categorically NOT! I
didn't even realise it was permitted
in NFD, and it certainly should not
be! The use of clusters is, imo, a
scourge in our hobby, and if the
trend by DARC ( WAE) and the Russian
organisation ( newly) to organise
contests WITHOUT unassisted sections
spreads more widely, I for one will
give up contesting altogether. Why
do you need cluster support for a
multiplier based contest, you do
not. What you do is carefully tune
around until you find  the mults.
yourself. I think this is called
skill? Are we to allow the dumbing
down of our hobby to spread to NFD.
If I had more time I'd tell you what
I really think ;-0

As alluded to above, I am most
definitely not a "little Britisher",
but perhaps NFD is one arena where
we can and should remain
independent?


73


Clive
GW3NJW