[UK-CONTEST] 144MHz AFS - G4TSW

[Tim Hugill]

The Tiverton club G4TSW in Devon entertained Dale G3XBY over the weekend,
and entered the 144MHz AFS contest  for the first time yesterday, operating
from the club's hill-top site. 
 
Having spent most of Saturday building what was mostly a portable station,
and then much of Sunday evening packing up in the cold & wet Devon mud, our
three operators plus support team enjoyed the whole event.  
 
We managed to maintain our QSO rate over the full 8hrs from our IO80 QTH,
making 159 QSO's. 
Hourly rates were      41-31-33-11-11-13-10-9.
Managed to work    4xDL, 3xF, 133xG, 1xGD, 4xGM, 5xGW, 5xON, 4xPA
 
We were therefore disappointed to read that some experienced contesters  are
in favour of shortening this contest as has also been suggested for the
70MHz Trophy.
 
We feel that eight hours was about right  for this event, for a few reasons
:-
1. The major VHF contests in the calendar should include an endurance
element and demand some stamina. Put bluntly, stations trying to do well
should have to work for it !
2. Not everyone has a QTH in a good location, which is what drives some of
us to leave the home comforts behind and head for the hills.  For a
single-op portable station, a 3hr duration might be acceptable, but a larger
team needs motivation to spend a lot of time & effort trying to build &
operate a competitive station.
3. Many fixed stations can only manage to find an hour or two to "give some
points away", and we feel a longer contest duration gives them more
opportunity to join in.
4. With no grid-square multipliers to encourage searching, shortening the
contest duration gives stations less time to look away from the NW-SE axis,
and S&P towards the less populated areas.
 
In our view, "Long contests are good contests", but we wonder how the GM/GI
regulars feel about this ?
 
So, as they say, "Tin Hats On" and a Merry Christmas to you all !
 
73 de 
Dale G3XBY & Tim G4FJK