[UK-CONTEST] RSGB Contest Committee

[Andrew]

On 08/08/10 12:24, Paul O'Kane wrote:

> There's been numerous comments, since 1993 when the
> IOTA contest started, to the effect that the exchange
> is too long, but no one has ever said it's too short.

Paul,

If you think the IOTA exchange is too long, I dread to think what you'd
make of the exchange in the ARRL Sweepstakes contest.  A typical
exchange is

EI5DI 123 B AC6WI 96 VA

That is SIX parts to the exchange and it is required that all are sent
and received.....  it is broken down as
Your callsign
Serial number
Precedence (indicates power level, single or multi-op etc)
My callsign
Year licence was issued
Section (similar to counties in RSGB events)

That really is a test of operating skill to send and receive all that
accurately (up to 2000 times during the contest period) and I believe
the long exchange originated from the traffic nets that used to be more
prevalent in the past.  Sweepstakes is probably the most popular
domestic contest within the US (2048 submitted logs in the SSB leg, 1552
logs in the CW leg) so long exchanges clearly aren't a demotivating
factor to participation.  The winning SSB entry made 2086 QSOs in 24hrs
and the winning CW entry made 1331 QSOs in 24hrs.

Vy 73,

Andrew AC6WI / GI0NWG