[UK-CONTEST] Irish Contest Set to Light Up the Bands

[Ed -- G3SQX-GW3SQX]

Re:  IR contest -- 

Well, Peter (G3LET) had more patience than me!  I suppose it was unreasonable to expect the bands to be full of EI and GI stations swapping counties and wishing everyone Top of the Morning.  But it was underwhelming to find so few stations from Ireland on the air.  The fact that everybody could work everybody was useful but not over-interesting, when there is a similar event almost every weekend of the year.  Full marks to the IRTS for trying, but it's unfortunate that "just another contest" is not going to do the trick these days.

It seems clear to me that there are countries that can get out the troops once or twice a year when required for their national contest (Germany, Russia, to name two), and countries that can't (UK, and apparently, Ireland).  I'm not sure what that tells us about national characteristics, but there is a clear message that "Everybody works the UK" is a doomed format -- so much for the 21/28MHz contest!  There's also a possible warning about trying to repeat the "Jubilee Contest" idea in 2013 (RSGB centenary).  

Anyway, with a bit more effort I'm sure I could have done better that the 32 QSOs made, 17 of which were "Irish."  But every trawl of a band, CW and SSB, only ever turned up a couple of stations calling CQIR, and it seemed a bit pointless to call CQ myself and just work any DLs that called.  Poor conditions didn't help, and US stations didn't know anything about the event.  No entries into the draw for me, so I'll have to buy my own ticket to Dublin!

73,

Ed, GW3SQX