[UK-CONTEST] Feedback from RSGB Contests Committee Annual Meeting

[Don Field]

The Contests Committee held its annual meeting on Saturday 25th April, with
17 members in attendance. There were a lot of matters to get through but the
meeting was very productive and a number of decisions were reached which
need to be communicated to entrants in RSGB contests. This is being done via
the web sites, here on the UK-contest reflector and through G4VXE's
Radiosport column in Radcom. Before listing the more significant decisions,
I would like to thank all those who took the time to write in with comments
and suggestions prior to our meeting. If your input does not appear to have
been taken on board, please be assured that it was considered, but
inevitably we had a number of conflicting points of view on some matters.
Incidentally, we continue to seek ways of getting feedback from the “silent
majority” but, given that they are “silent” it’s not always easy, so do
encourage your club members and similar to send us input as the year goes
on.


UKAC Contests

=============

It was confirmed that the new process of normalisation used for the UKAC
contests was producing a better spread of scores and tended to reward
consistent performance in several events rather than outstanding performance
in only one or two.



Ropoco

======

Starting in 2010 Ropoco will be a 90-minute contest, but will remain a
Sunday morning event with the same start time.



Certificates

==========

With immediate effect, certificates will be available for download in PDF
format, to be printed by the recipient. Initially recipients will be also be
able to request a printed certificate if required, but this will be reviewed
at our 2010 meeting, taking account of any feedback received. Paper
certificates can still be mailed to those who sent paper entries, though
no-one was clear on the last time a paper entry qualified for a certificate!
Some other contest organisers are already using PDF certificates and it is
hoped that this move will speed up the process and reduce the current
backlog.



Club Membership

===============

The Committee decided that starting in 2010, rules about club membership
would be aligned across HF and VHF. This means that in order to enter 80m
CC, 80m Sprint, NFD, LP Field Day, SSB FD and Club Calls an entrant must
either be an RSGB member, or a member of the entering Affiliated Society (or
both). At present on HF, this rule only applies to AFS and in all other
events UK entrants must be RSGB members. There is no change to this rule for
VHF contests.



Log Deadlines

=============

Recently deadlines for the 80m CC contests have been more rigidly enforced,
which the Committee feels is essential in order to be able to publish the
results quickly. Log deadlines will in future be enforced, but if
exceptional circumstances arise the entrant can write to the adjudicator
*before* the deadline to request an extension. Logs received by the robot
after the deadline will automatically be classified as “post deadline”  and
this will be shown on the logs received page.



Log Entry Robot

===============

The log entry robot is in place for all VHF contests and for 80m CC, and a
similar approach is used for IOTA. The robot has brought great benefits in
terms of log quality and eases the burden on the adjudicator, leading to
less risk of entries in the wrong category, or sending the wrong log file.
Entrants must take note of any warning or error messages from the robot and
be prepared to correct their log and re-submit. Use of the robot will be
extended to other HF contests during the course of 2009.

VHF Calendar and Rules
====================

As well as matters covered in this note,  other changes to the VHF calendar
are still being considered, so please do check the website when planning a
contest entry for 2010.



I want to take this opportunity to thank the members of the Contests
Committee for their work during the year. Without their (purely voluntary)
efforts there would be no RSGB contests. Thanks to G4CLA’s web-based
submission system and G0GJV’s adjudication software, the adjudication
workload is reducing, but the amount of correspondence remains quite
time-consuming.





73, Don Field G3XTT

Chairman, RSGB Contests Committee