[UK-CONTEST] RSGB 80mCC Contests - Data legs

[Steve Knowles]

There have been a substantial number of soapbox comments recently concerning lack of band space for the 80mCC Data legs.

The Contests Committee met on Saturday and considered the problem at length.  In consequence, there will be substantial changes in the rules for the data legs in 2009.

The rule changes have yet to be finalised in detail, but are expected to be as follows:

The size of the PSK-only segment will be increased by 2kHz, to 3580 - 3585kHz.
The RTTY segment will be extended HF to 3620kHz, the limit for datamodes under the IARU Region 1 band plan.
Any version of PSK will be permitted.
Each Data leg will be regarded as two SEPARATE contests (RTTY and PSK) running simultaneously.  Competitors may (and are advised to) take part in both contests; only one log will be required, exactly as at present.  The scores for each mode in each category will be separately normalised.  A competitor's final score for the leg will be the sum of their normalised scores for each event. The tables of final scores will then be normalised to 1000 to bring them into line with the other modes.  (So a competitor who, say, won the RTTY leg with 100 QSOs but made no PSK contacts would score the same as a competitor who won the PSK leg with only 20 contacts but who made no RTTY QSOs.  But both would be roundly beaten by a station who achieved, say, only 60 RTTY and 14 PSK contacts.)

It is anticipated that these changes will help relieve the pressure on RTTY band space by encouraging PSK activity, and will also introduce an element of strategy, which to date has been notably absent from the 80mCC events.

Steve Knowles  G3UFY
pp RSGB Contests Committee