[UK-CONTEST] 144MHz AFS contest this Sunday.

[Lee Volante]

Ray,

I've put out the rallying call to my local club members to be active in 144
MHz AFS, even if they only have an hour free, or if they only have a
vertical antenna. It's a bit of fun I've taken part most years for the last
20 years. Originally I took part as a school station, then from University
on the south coast (spending the weekend putting up a stack of yagis on a
high rooftop), and now attempt to drum up activity with my local club in the
Midlands. We're a lot further south than you are, but we're still about as
likely to work PA as we are GM.

The results tabulation for AFS I think does inspire a bit of teamwork - in
previous years we've tried getting together for a more serious entry from a
single station, and then also seen due to the score normalisation a full
team of more 'average stations' might do easily as well.

There are always possibilities to refine and change the rules, but I don't
think they're inherently broken.  AFS is fun, it's about being part of a
team, it's about competing to be the 'best entry in your club team', or the
'best team in your club' if you can cajole enough friends to have a go.

On the wider issue of rules, I think in the UK we're very lucky to have so
many different VHF events organised for us in the calendar. Many other
European countries are not so lucky in this respect, although they may enjoy
higher activity caused in the large part by their location. I'm sure there
are several events in our VHF calendar which have rules and multipliers
weighted to give stations at the extremes of the UK a benefit, which can be
used to your advantage.

Similar, the HF calendar has some events which benefit Midlanders, and
others which benefit other areas.  This is the beauty (and perhaps the
point) of a varied programme - to give different sorts of stations a
chance.  In last weekend's CQ WW CW, there's no way I can 'win' overall from
the UK, but I accept this, scope my goals accordingly, and still participate
and enjoy the contest.  I could achieve an outright win in other events, and
if 'winning' is my goal, then I'll focus my efforts on taking part in these
instead.

I applaud your efforts to highlight possibilities to improve activity and
enjoyment of events, but I'm a little concerned your method may be perceived
as being defeatist or antaganostic. I'm also wary how strong a correlation
should be drawn between a lack of activity and the organisation of events.

73,

Lee G0MTN


On 04/12/2008, Ray James <gm4cxm at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
>
> Sorry Peter, not interested as the rules do nothing to encourage activity
> by members of clubs affiliated to the RSGB throughout the UK.
>
>