[UK-CONTEST] Decline in 2m contest activity

[Chris Tran GM3WOJ]

Hello all

This is an interesting thread, which raises a whole host of other issues to 
do with the health of UK amateur radio in general.

Sorry to disagree with my old friend Ray GM4CXM and my new friend Jiri 
M0ITY, but I think the VHFCC were quite correct to restrict the use of the 
ON4KST chat-room - with the best will in the world, the temptation to 
correct incorrectly copied QSO information must be almost impossible to 
resist. Sorry guys, but this is a radio hobby, not an internet hobby.  For 
years VHF and UHF DXing/weak-signal QSOs worked well with just an radio + 
amp + antenna + CQ to solicit QSOs - why should it be any different in 2008 
?

The decline in 2m contest activity has 2 facets - firstly - where are the 
10W/100W + 8ele yagi brigade, who were the 'bread and butter' (aka 'cannon 
fodder'!) of the portables in the 1980s and early 1990s ?  My theory is that 
the current generation have never experienced the thrill of completing a 
1000km QSO, so don't see 'anything in it for them' ?

The second facet is the demise of all but a few diehard 'big groups' - my 
theory about this is that one group dominated the 2m contest scene for many 
years, to such an extent that other groups simply 'gave up' trying to beat 
them. You might view this as an over-simplification, but it is what has 
happened.

73
Chris
GM3WOJ