[UK-CONTEST] 80m cc

[Roger G3SXW]

Dear UK-Contest,
The Three A's Contest Group was founded by G3SXW, G3TXF and G3WVG many years 
ago when the G0 call-sign block was allocated. We secured G0AAA as our club 
call-sign. None of the many local radio clubs suited us: we were primarily 
keen contesters after all.

Now let's look overseas: there are many "DX" and "Contest" clubs, many of 
which do not have a local focus or have a broad geographic spread. What's 
wrong with that? A gathering of like minds is more likely to prosper than 
joining a group whose interests lay elsewhere, e.g. tea & biscuits, 
re-living the old times, VHF/UHF, DF, junk-sales etc. I wish such clubs 
every success, but mostly they are not for me. With modern comms (internet) 
we no longer need to get the bus to our local club to meet fellow hams.

Has G0AAA contributed to the health of contesting down the years? I think we 
could claim so, both nationally and internationally. So, I suggest that the 
concept of restricting club contests to the traditional local radio club is 
outdated. PS: maybe 'Flying Pigs' is another example (including a prominent 
member of RSGB HFCC), Brimham, Ga-Ga and others . . . . good luck to them 
all. They/we add considerably to HF contesting activity, which is surely the 
number one objective and is well within the 'spirit of the contest'.

73 de Roger/G3SXW.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Hobbs" <peter at tilgate.co.uk>
To: <uk-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2009 1:17 PM
Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] 80m cc


>I don't think AFS is a particularly good example to follow.  The
> objective of the 80m CCs was to encourage NEW entrants and to use the
> club scene to achieve this.   This objective has been met very
> successfully, thanks to Dave and Justin's imaginative rules.  If we were
> to limit participation by area or team size, the main impact would be to
> reduce the overall entry, something none of us want.
>
> We are then left with how to deal with those "clubs" who may try to
> scavenge members from elsewhere, something which I'm sure was never
> intended but which is not easy to control, without a lot of work on the
> part of the contest adjudicators.   Again, the generally very prompt
> results we are happy to see assume that entrants can generally be taken
> at face value, without the need for a lot of manual verification and
> cross-checking.  I would suggest that peer pressure (including this
> forum) will ultimately be sufficient to keep team composition within the
> "spirit" of the event.
>
> 73
> Peter G3LET
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