[UK-CONTEST] Individual Short Contest Callsigns

[Olof Lundberg]

Ian, the key point I was trying to make was that the present
calls are under-utilized and it would be a good thing if the
calls were used when allocated - use them or lose them.

My "research" was very unscientific but probably not way off
the mark:

First I checked my 2007 RSGB Yearbook and found that there
were 80 special contest calls listed for England. There
might well be more today. Wouldn't the total pool for the UK
be 2*10*26=520 calls?

Then I made a quick random scan of some contest results. In
CQ WW CW 2008 there were some 91 logs from England of which
only 6 were short calls and 3 of those were for single-op
entries. For ARRL DX CW 2009 53 logs from England of which
only 3 were short calls and all of those were SO while for
ARRL DX 2008 the figures were 37 logs from England of which
1 (one) was short call and SO at that. For RDXC 2009 there
were 45 entries with two short calls, one SOSB and one
checklog. RDXC 2008 sported 46 entries with one short call
SOAB and 2007 38 entries with nil short call. 

Ian: I put the word "misuse" between quotation marks because
I don't know the history or the intent of the original
scheme - I just assumed that since there didn't seem to be a
scheme for individual calls but only for club calls the
intent must have been club/multi activities but that might
be just my ignorance. I see nothing wrong with club members
airing a club call occasionally; few clubs have permanent
club station facilities nowadays at any rate.

The objective of the whole exercise must be to stimulate and
facilitate contest activity and participation. These calls
should be used and not collected on the shelf. Those that
have used their calls seriously should of course be allowed
to keep them. The idea that applicants are filtered on
activity does make sense to me if the resource is limited
and then also that holders should re-qualify.

Given the statistics the indicated criteria might well be
unnecessarily restrictive. It should probably be feasible 1)
to widen the pool of "permitted" contests; 2) to allow those
club calls that have been used to stay put; and 3) to ease
the qualification rule. But then again it would not be in
our collective interest to mess Ofcom around; keep it
simple.

73 Olof G0CKV


-----Original Message-----
From: uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of
g3wvg at btinternet.com
Sent: 02 March 2010 10:39
To: UK-Contest at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] Individual Short Contest Callsigns

Olof

Very interesting.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>
I couldn't resist a few minutes of research on how the
present short calls have been used and I found that 1) very
few of the club short calls have been used at all; 2) most
(but not all) of the very few that have been used have
actually been [mis?]used as a device for an individual to
grab a call.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>
Why not share your research by letting us know which calls
haven't been
used.
I'd be interested too, to hear your definition of
"[mis?]used".
Do you mean single-op entries? 

73 Ian G3WVG