[UK-CONTEST] Re :- July Radcom - BERU.

[brian coyne]

First off let me say that it was remiss of me not to acknowlege the publicity efforts to promote Beru abroad, in retrospect that was churlish and I apologise.
There may have been an impression that I was expressing 'sour grapes' , that may have been true of my (not unfair?) comments re failure of committee to acknowlege my request re introduction of a Triband wire section but in no other way
 
I will make this final statement on that issue and put it behind me as having no support.
It is ok to make performance comparisons year on year but how accurate when propagation and competitors differ from year to year? I want to know how I performed against my peers on the day. How can I tell who my peers are? For those who question "what is this guy complaining about"? - leave your linear switched off for the next beru and later compare with last years result. Apart from the obvious candidates who are not your peers you sure as hell will not know who were your peers on the day!. I wasn't asking for gongs, certificates anything like that. the simple addition of something like a 'T' annotation in the final table would have sufficed.CQ are happy to do it, RSGB seemingly are not!

It seems that the 'irony' of my 23rd, hic, 24th place mention was missed. From this island, certainly on higher bands, working uk is akin to spearing fish in a barrel, multiply active 'G' stn's by all available bands and it is no surprise to see how many top spots this island gets. Good for us in keeping us busy, how, in any way can that be compared with UK entrants?
The 'G' big guns maybe happy enough with the status quo but has anyone asked the restricted guys how they like it or what they would want? Seems to me the average Joe Bloggs has to be satisfied in the main with this island, plus 9H & ZB2 (if anyone active there). East coast VE, Caribbean and some Africa are attainable with a bit more difficulty.
Very few 'G' stns in this category managed to exceed 100 q's and most far less. Of these look at the vast majority who opted for that 12 hour section and who can blame them?.
Maybe, as rules presently stand, I would allow the 12 hour section to remain for restricted section with no station allowed to win it more than one time, but would abolish it for the open section.entirely. Such a section maybe ok for a busy event like IOTA but has no place in an event like this where we need the activity.

What is needed is innovation to keep them motivated, keep them there long enough to benefit from unexpected openings. The only way to give them extra stn's to work is by allowing uk/uk working. My suggestion may not be the best solution but would be workable and actively seeking solutions is what is needed. Having given participation a boost does not mean we should be complacent.Those graph statistics on the beru website do show that restricted activity has flattened out for the last 5 years. We need to look forward, not back. The CC competition seems to have attracted new blood, is anything being done to convert some of those guys to this contest? 

To a newbie Beru is daunting, too difficult. Many do not participate other than to work some new dxcc counter. Give them activity in some form of the manner I have suggested and many of them will stick and it's a pound to a penny that many present participants will increase the time they spend in the contest..

Trust me, without innovation this contest will, over time, wither away as we present incumbants turn up our toes. Face the challenge of finding answers  rather than saying "it aint broke and don't need fixing"

If you have a view please express it here, we really need to know the overall view of our contest community otherwise Committee will assume that the majority are satisfied with matters as they are, and they could well be right but we will only know if you contribute.

73  Brian 5B4AIZ/C4Z/G4ODV.\par