[UK-CONTEST] Individual Short Contest Callsigns

[Mark Haynes]

This is a promising move by Ofcom. Congratulations to those involved in making this happen.

The qualification criteria is certainly interesting. We all understand that number of QSOs is often not the best measure, but more by the score obtained. It may be confusing, though possible, to enter a lower number of QSOs by the winning station than your own! This happened to me some years ago when G0MTN thrashed me on mults in the 12 hour section of IOTA, though I made something like 200 QSOs more :)
I can only assume that the leading station is that of the category and DXCC of the contest. For example, leading 'G' in CQWW counts as first place, therefore you have one - as per the certificate, the words used are 'for winning' with a 1st place indicated in this scenario.

A short contest call is likely to increase the rate a little, and this is supported by the number of QSLs received when I use G1A in a contest instead of my home call. If you have a short contest call with a rare prefix, such as G9* or M9*, many hams will be more tempted to call you. Some would say that it gives you a few extra db's in signal strength!

I wonder if Ofcom could be tempted to issue short calls for Intermediate Licence holders - such as 2E5A!

73,
Mark M0DXR




________________________________
From: David Cree <daveg3tbk at googlemail.com>
To: uk-contest at contesting.com
Sent: Thu, 25 February, 2010 18:17:45
Subject: [UK-CONTEST] Individual Short Contest Callsigns

Tom - Surely the only point in having a short call is to gain an 
advantage? Anyway it will only remove one of our disadvantages compared 
to our EU brethren in International events - our power limit is probably 
more significant.

Mike - In Contests like SSB FD and NFD the rates never get anywhere near 
high enough to be limited by the length of the callsign. The 
availability of a short call would not by itself propel a club to a top 
spot, which is, I suspect, a mis-apprehension held by many!

Looking through the list of already allocated short calls before filling 
in my application, I couldn't help think that a large number are held by 
Clubs that don't enter Contests! Domestic or International!

Incidentally Ofcom told me yesterday that results attained whilst 
operating from outside UK were valid as qualification.


73 Dave G3TBK (Currently J88DR)

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