[UK-CONTEST] Watts for Contests

[Ken Eastty]

Amateur Radio contests must be one of the few 'sporting' activities 
where with the exception of HF NFD the equipment used is not subject to 
scrutineering and it appears that some entrants exploit this by running 
illegal power levels. The excuse that it is necessary to do this because 
entrants in other European countries have higher power limits doesn't 
wash. No matter how much power you run in the UK stations in Southern 
Europe will always have a big advantage due to propagation. Whilst 
there's nothing that the RSGB HF CC can do about contests run by other 
organisations the least that it could do is to insist that a full list 
of station transmitting equipment is given by each entrant and 
published. The rest of us can make up our own minds about who might be 
'bending' the rules. Anyone objecting to this idea will make the rest of 
us wonder why.
I don't believe for one moment that there's any reason for UK stations 
to be using amplifiers with a rated O/P of more than 1kW regardless of 
feeder loss or duty cycle on RTTY etc. The quest for more & more power 
creates greater QRM levels on the bands and also gives those who are 
prepared to run more than the legal limit an unfair advantage in events 
like AFS.

73....

Ken

G3LVP