[UK-CONTEST] July Radcom - BERU

[Nick Totterdell]

Hey Brian

 

Your posting is very hard to reply to as although it is interesting, it
is also rather rambling. Also I think a lot of the ground you are raking
over has been discussed on here before.

I am not a committee member and have no particular axe to grind but will
make a comment to some of your points.

Bobs website at http://www.beru.org.uk/ has lots of really interesting
statistics which are worth a bit of analysis. It is clear that contest
entries are increasing from all major areas - and actual scores are also
rising. From this I infer that more stations are participating and not
just that contest software is making entry easy or that more casual
participants are submitting a log. This is all good news. Also with only
one sample per year, it does take a long time to determine whether the
rules are optimised.

I am not keen on the UK works UK idea. The great pleasure from the UK is
to be able to work exotic countries worldwide, with which we have a
nostalgic connection - dare I suggest that Slough, Solihull and
Scunthorpe (no disrespect intended) wouldn't add to the excitement for
me. It would also be pretty depressing, having travelled to some
expensive, far-flung destination, to be unable to work into the UK
because the UK stations were all busy working each other. The idea,
suggested earlier, of upping the number of UK HQ stations, might perhaps
improve the scoring possibilities for UK stations without detracting
from the DX focus. Anyway there are plenty of high-rate contests already
- this one is special for other reasons.

I am not sure that I understand your tri-band, wires idea. I could
suggest a category for guys called Nick in South Yorkshire and I would
possibly win it. Knowing that I have no chance of winning doesn't stop
me entering contests. I can aim to improve each year and try to analyse
how to do this. Mostly I am not competing with those who will win but
competing with my previous attempt.

To improve this particular contest we need more participation from
outside the UK. Canadian participation is great but in other countries
it is less so. You have personally contributed brilliantly to it. Keep
it up!

And anyone else who is reading this thread and who is tempted to try
Beru from outside the UK, if you contact someone who has done this
before you will get plenty of encouragement and help to make it happen.

 

73 Nick G4FAL (V47CD)