[UK-CONTEST] What is contest competiton for?

[Peter Bowyer]

2009/2/23 Tony Roskilly <g3zrj.morsekey at btinternet.com>:
> Hi All,
> have been sitting here reading the last few days of submissions.
>
> I want to ask a simple question:
>
> 1) What is that basis for competition in contests in the UK?
>
> (please note I say in the UK because I hope that RSGB and the amateur community in these islands can and should demonstrate a high standard to the rest of the world).
>
> a) Is it meant to encourage operators to improve their skill levels and demonstrate this by the excellent ops getting top billings in the results tables thereby allowing a pool of real talent to show itself for both national and international contests.
>
> b) Is it a chance for the "mines' bigger than yours" brigade to show off how much much more potent their signal is?
>
> These two categories are not necessarily mutually exclusive however,  the b) group seem to be becoming more and more to the fore in this country.

The growing success of the power-limited 80m CC events, and the
further increasing popularity of the QRP section in those events,
suggests otherwise.

There are plenty of international opportunities for the big guns to
compete with other big guns and compare the sizes of their weapons.
Meanwhile, the RSGB is doing just what you[re suggesting by promoting
new contests which are aimed squarely at, and supported by, the rest
of us, along with introducing innovative new log submission and
adjudication systems which turn round results in world-record times
and keep us all interested.

Peter G4MJS

-- 
Peter Bowyer
Email: peter at bowyer.org
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