[UK-CONTEST] RSGB 21 / 28MHz Contest 2010

[brian coyne]

The majority of views expressed in this thread are for this contest to be retained.
Ed (GW3SQX) wrote here a couple of months ago that the HFCC are always prepared to listen to the membership. In practise that doesn't seem to have been the case with this contest as there was active discussion this time last year following the 2009 event because we have been informed that  this years event was to be the last.
 
Now that several big guns have entered the debate expressing their dissent ion Ed tells us that the future of the event is to be discussed once more and this is an action to be welcomed.In past years we have been subject to committee decisions where there is no consultation with membership so bang went the 7mhz contact into oblivion to the condemnation of much of the membership.
 
May I point to the admirable leadership by Randy, K5ZD, whose proactive approach to managing the WPX contests, he seeks the views from participants on every aspect of rules,scoring etc. Ok his job is full time and I know that committee members are volunteers with limited time but that should not preclude every effort being made to ascertain ways of saving the fixture rather than aborting it. Perhaps a strong, interested longstanding participant could be co-opted to do a detailed study and examine new options. An example to follow here would be Bob G3PJT who resurrected BERU when it was on a downward spiral
 
Reasons for retaining the contest have been detailed here by others but it has to be admitted that the problem will be difficult to solve should it remain in it's present format,
 
 a) low sunspot years,
 
 b) poor support from the host country, 
 
c) limited interest from overseas contesters.
 
My comments, for what they are worth.
 
Re - a) Not a lot we can do about low or absent sunspot propagation, exacerbated by being a  high band event but the combining of the two modes must have increased activity somewhat if only by lifting the boredom threshold extending the periods guys spend on air.
 
Re - b) We have seen reports of low numbers of logs submitted, have we seen numbers of UK stns appearing in overseas logs? That would be a better test? Discover the reasons for the low levels of support and address them. The success of the 80mtr clubs contest ough't to be a guide here so add a new category for the uk clubs. Peer pressure is a great motivator and I feel many clubs would enjoy the kudos of entering and winning a worldwide HF event.
 
Re - c) This problem of course is a product of  b), improve uk numbers and there will be more overseas response. Throwing it open for non uk stns to work each other and altering the scoring may be an option but needs detailed study on likely effects. After all on these bands there is a continental shift of propagation throughout the event for  each area, apart from Eastern and central eu, so it rather defeats the object of the contest if  75% or more of the time there is no prospect of a uk contact. What would improve activity would be to award a winners certificate to the leading stn in each dxcc country or US state in addition to continental winners to 3 places. In these days of downloadable certificates that would be absolute minimum in terms of time, effort or cost. Awareness is vital, RSGB have a huge database of past participants, think of IOTA, attracting just 10% of those numbers, and they are active contesters not casuals, would give a
 great leap to the support. Do not just send a mail a couple of days before the contest but a couple of weeks prior followed up by a reminder a couple of days previous to the event.
 
Let us do our best to prolong this event rather than debating upon the inquest.
 
73  Brian 5B4AIZ.