[UK-CONTEST] 144Mhz CW Marconi contest

[Ray James]

--- On Wed, 4/11/09, John Lemay <john at carltonhouse.eclipse.co.uk> wrote:

> Traditionally, G station support for this contest is not high. 

Only 9 UK stations competed in last years contest and all were located in the south east corner of IO91, IO92, JO01 and JO02.
Saying it's traditionally under supported from the UK is no excuse for such a result to be acceptable or be the norm.
If it's working then don't fix it, if it's not then it should be sorted.

The main reason this event is poorly supported by UK 2m CW contesters is not a lack of CW operators around but an even worse "back of the beam" scenario than the UKAC's. If the CC really wanted to encourage greater UK participation then it would require modification of the rules.
It was amusing but a sad reflection looking back at contest adjudicators comments for the Marconi 2m CW Contests going right back to the 90's bemoaning the low UK activity levels but doing nothing to resolve it.

Retaining "Points per Km" as the only method of scoring for IARU events will never succeed in the UK as the majority in the UK are at a distance disadvantage from the EU activity. The solution to getting more UK participation rests with making the contest more attractive for UK operators. This could be achieved by adding a "UK Only" squares multiplier for our UK entry and scoring. For submission to the IARU event, the CC would simply submit a re-scored log file based on PPKm only. Okay, it means another log run but if the end result is increased UK participation then would be the overriding bonus.

73 Ray GM4CXM