[UK-CONTEST] Eu Sprint - Apology

[Clive Whelan]

Dave

I think it's a case of market forces, and as you say the
Sprint just doesn't command a sufficient level of support.
Mind you, there is no way to compete with WSEM and DIG
simultaneously! Being late getting on, I found nobody to
work on 20 or 40m, so just had to work JAs ;-). I also
worked a JA on 80m before I heard any Sprint stations!

I noticed a fortnight ago how quiet ( in terms of activity)
the bands were, and on checking the calendar, there was not
a contest of any flavour taking place. Might I suggest
therefore that the first weekend of April would be a good
slot for the Spring CW event; it's also easy to remember.
This weekend would clearly have been right for the SSB
event. Timing is everything.


73



Clive
GW3NJW

-----Original Message-----
From: uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com]On Behalf Of Dave
Lawley
Sent: 14 April 2007 20:01
To: UK Contest Reflector
Subject: [UK-CONTEST] Eu Sprint - Apology


This is an apology to any uk-contest reflectorites who I may
have
tempted to have a go in the Eu CW Sprint today.

A few years ago we started getting QRM in the last two hours
of the
contest from the Russian WSEM contest. An approach to the
Russians
proved fruitless, so we decided for last year's contest to
swap the
spring phone and CW weekends. At the same time we moved the
start time
one hour later, to reduce the disadvantage suffered by those
of us in
western Europe. Before, when the contest finished we were
still in
daylight and this made 80m QSOs especially hard.

Well, guess what? The Russians have gone and moved their
damned WSEM
contest a week early - it started an hour into the CW sprint
today, and
has totally trashed it. Complete waste of time.

The North American sprints have a great level of activity
and very high
skill levels, with the leaders making up to 400 QSOs in the
four-hour
contest period. We're told that contesting is on the
increase in Europe
but we have never been able to achieve comparable levels of
activity in
the Eu sprint and I'm forced to the conclusion that, with
some
exceptions of course, Eu contesters cannot achieve the skill
levels
needed for sprint contesting, they seem to prefer just
pushing F1 all
day and if the cluster can find your mults for you, so much
the better.

Even though we don't get the same levels of activity in the
Eu sprints
that they get in North America, I usually enjoy the sprint
but WSEM has
completely ruined it this time.

Dave G4BUO

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