[UK-CONTEST] Domineering VHF Contest Stations

[Ray James]

--- On Fri, 8/5/09, Peter Bowyer <peter at bowyer.org> wrote:

> That'll be the 2m UK Cumulatives, which I wrote the rules for prior to
> their introduction in 1999-ish. They featured 3 points per UK contact,
> 1 point per non-UK contact, with postcode multipliers (hence no mults
> for non-UK contacts).
> 
> They ran for 2 or 3 years, suffered from severe lack of support, and
> were superceded by the 2m UKACs which were timed to overlap with the
> NAC and other European events to capitalise on the activity already
> present in near-Eu.
> 
> You can't win 'em all, clearly.
> 
> Peter G4MJS

Many thanks for that info Peter.
That looked a very positive move and I'm sorry it didn't work at the time.
Having now had an opportunity to review these events on the VHFCC website and absorb the information within, I feel better informed.
I'm sorry I wasn't around to support it then. I'd tired of the decline in 2m activity for a few years and went HF. It took a few years but the pull of VHF+ did return so down came the 3el SteppIR and the Alpha PA sold off.
These cumulatives you wrote the rules for appear to be 4 events spread over a two month period, for example, 1999, 16/8, 31/8, 15/9, 30/9.
The Nordic Activity Contests (NAC) that the VHFCC then placed the new UKAC to correlate (partially) with was a regular monthly event. In hindsight, it is a shame your cumulative rules weren't used for the new event but is never too late to make amendments :-)
The fact that the UKAC included serial number exchange whereas the NAC doesn't identifies that exchanges would be different for working non-UK stations though I tend to find nowadays they're quite happy to provide them though they don't do so in Nordic to Nordic contacts AFAIK.
Including an RSGB Postal Code abbreviation within a inter-UK contact presents no problem. I note a cumulative entry from someone in IO88!
When was the last time you saw that in UKAC!!!!
Some of us "olde fartes" can still remember contests when we had to exchange full location details when working UK stations but just locator details when working non-UK stations so sending a 2 letter code will be easy and certainly welcome if it slowly but surely starts generating more UK participation and interest.

Good job I have a couple of tabs open as I see replies are flowing fast and furious and it is very welcome to see all the views expressed.

To David G4ASR (welcome!).....as per above David, the UKAC's now have a recognised slot in the calender that's dead easy to remember, 1st Tuesday 2m, 2nd Tuesday 70cm, 3rd Tuesday 23cm/13cm etc etc. Rather than re-invent the wheel with a new breed of cumulative contests, would it not be easier to just amend a current but monthly UK contest by either my suggestion, Peter's cumulative rules or something similar? I like Peter's rules but I think it would be easier for CLA/GJV to amend scoring systems to use points per Km rather than the 3 points/1 point difference and nowadays we're all used to PPKm, as well as it being the standard for IARU events. I also suggested a Low Power section, question marked at 10w as I would like to get a load more of the smiling certificate holding kids and older folk who stare out to us from Radcom to start finding there's more to VHF+ than FM/D* repeaters. 

>Chris G0MLY: "The upshot might well be that these people with vertical antenna see how much fun contesting is and later decide to upgrade their stations, at considerable time and expense!"   

Very true...my thoughts exactly :-)

>Jonathan G0DVJ: "Nowadays, the newcomer is likely to have, in this order ...
- an FM only handheld
- an FM 50w mobile (maybe with D-star God forbid)
- a compromise HF/V/UHF do-it-all mobile (a la FT817/857 etc)

These are the very ones who certainly need enlightening Jonathan!

>John, G4ZTR.

Sorry John but "I'm alright Jack" springs to mind.
Part of the reason YOUR score rate falls when you look to the UK for contacts is the very basis of this discussion. Nobody is looking for advantage though I'm against dis-advantage when it is correctable, my discussion is not about east coastal stations winning almost every VHF+ contest, it's about turning around a dreadful situation of yearly declining VHF+ interest in the UK getting stopped in it's tracks and turned around for the benefit of this hobby. Contests just happen to be one of the attributes RSGB have to stop the rot and turn it around.
We don't need a new contest to fix it, we already have a regular monthly UKAC to make that start. 


73 Ray GM4CXM