[UK-CONTEST] NATIONAL VHF CONTEST

[Steve White]

I'm not going to send a post with streams of others' input at the foot of 
it, because we've all seen it. What I'd like to say is that as a 
long-standing VHF enthusiast and contester I have been interested to monitor 
the discussion that's been taking place here and pleased to see that in 
general it has been in good heart. Long may that continue! If discussion on 
this reflector leads ultimately to increased VHF contesting activity from UK 
stations, the reflector will be serving its purpose and I think we will be 
entitled to pat ourselves collectively on the back.

Personally, I very much welcomed the rule change which brought in 1 point 
per kilometre. Prior to that I rarely bothered to enter the 2m UKACs, 
because I knew before kickoff I wasn't going to come anywhere. This is 
because although my QSOs had a high average distance, not many people beam 
to South West England so I didn't make anything like as many QSOs as 
similarly equipped stations in other parts of the UK. With the 1 point /km 
rule I still don't win, but why should I? What's important is that I now 
feel my placing in the results table more fairly reflects the effort I make 
and the station I have. If it is felt that UK postcode multipliers would 
help to promote inter-UK activity, let's have them for the UKAC's, but I 
don't think it would be right to remove locator square multipliers because 
such a move would discriminate against east coast stations who work lots of 
continentals.

Steve, G3ZVW