[UK-CONTEST] The UK Activity Contests

Sat Dec 31 07:32:47 PST 2011

________________________________
 From: John Lemay <john at carltonhouse.eclipse.co.uk>
To: 'Ray James' <gm4cxm at yahoo.co.uk>; 'UK Contesting' <uk-contest at contesting.com> 
Sent: Saturday, 31 December 2011, 9:18
Subject: RE: [UK-CONTEST] The UK Activity Contests

>Ray and all

Hi John

>I agree it's been good to see activity in the UKAC increase this year, even
though I have not been qrv myself, except very occasionally. Nevertheless, I
have listened and observed on a number of Tuesday nights. And I'm glad that
your tireless efforts to persuade the committee to change the rules to an M5
multiplier were successful. 

I'm prepared to take all the flak but not the credit!
The CC under Ed's chairmanship obviously saw merit in the suggestion which may have been proposed by me but had UK wide support from many others who wrote here or direct to the CC.
The credit goes to the CC for making the rule change.
I do feel that a very good case was made by all concerned and this has proved to be the case in practise.
On 23cm for example I've seen months when up to 14 different GMs have been on and in November there were over 50 UKAC entries. Amazing.
I've no idea what the average ratio of entrants/non-entrants is but assuming as low as 1:2 then that is an incredible total amount of activity interested in coming on, on a very challenging band.   

>By a remarkable co-incidence it has enabled you to achieve some regular top spots in the results table.

Possibly more by default than a remarkable co-incidence. 
We will never know unfortunately as John G3XDY opted out from competing but it hasn't been a one horse race with G8OHM and others for company and very close on points.
John is a very good operator, great station plus location and more than capable of regular contacts over 500km/600km throughout the UK including GI and GM (IO75, IO86, IO87) and over 700km into OZ/SM.
I think he would have done very well in the microwave UKAC's this year just like Bryn G4DEZ maintained his winning position in the 2m UKAC despite what he wrote last year.

>However, as Bob G8HGN has pointed out, there has been a down-side too. A number of previously keen competitors in the SE of England have voted with their feet and no longer enter the UKAC. 

Then the simple solution is to turn it around and compete like everybody else. Then there would be no downside.

>It's ironic that you can now see comments posted along the lines of "worked no-one in 01 or 02 last night".

More than made up by all the "Great activity" feedback comments from the majority of UK competitors.
Actually, JO02 has been very evident thanks to the surge of interest from Camb-Hams group members this year and even on 23cm it is rare not to work one or two.

>I find the M5 multiplier to be insular and introverted. It plainly discourages us from looking further afield, and instead encourages intense areas of activity such as we now see in IO83.

Conversely, I find looking afield very beneficial to pick up some real nice ppkm contact distances to then multiply my UK square count with and it can often make a winning difference so continental qso's remain important.
Poor old IO83 keeps on getting picked on! BWC got it right before M5, they've just capitalised on it and more. They have been a shining example of not only getting members active but even more importantly on other bands.
The level of activity may mean they are a victim of their own success with high levels of qrm and an inability to hear some DX but going by the comments they're just loving 2.5 hours of pandemonium each Tuesday.
I'm starting to see signs IO92 could be the next  square to follow suit so the ingredients do appear to be what people really want rather than white noise or backofthebeamitus. 

>Unfortunately, the Tuesday night increase in activity has not been
transferred to other contests, at least, not yet. I rather think that this
is because longer contests, such as the Trophies, fall into the "too
difficult" category.

I also would have expected to see more migrate and from adjudicator comments I believe there has been increased numbers but certainly nothing in comparison to Tuesday night levels.
Maybe most can afford the time for the short duration weekday evening UKACs over a 6, 12 or 24 hour event?
Maybe most prefer the pandemonium of UKACs over events that don't have M5 'cos they find there trying to contact stations on the back of there beams most of the time?
The Trophy Contests (for example) co-incides with major IARU events so naturally this attracts a south easterly qtf the majority of the time. If your used to entering a contest when folk swing antennas 360 degrees more often then that may be preferred to ones that don't? I tried 70cm for 3 of 4 Xmas Cumulatives and gave up after 3 contacts on the first and 1 each on the second and third. It just wasn't worth spending another 2 hours away from the family for that return.  

>Ah well, Happy New Year to all, including the Committee, who have the
thankless task of trying to please almost everyone almost all the time !

Ditto.

>Regards

>John G4ZTR

73 Ray GM4CXM

-----Original Message-----
From: uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Ray James
Sent: 29 December 2011 01:15
To: UK Contesting
Subject: [UK-CONTEST] The UK Activity Contests

Hi all,

Here we are approaching the end of year and the final UKAC under the new
rules and M5 multiplier of 2011 has taken place.
I would like to thank Ed GW3SQX and his contest committee for taking on
board what myself and others interested in fostering total UK participation
in VHF, UHF and Microwave UKAC contesting had suggested.
Not only did he listen but took action and the results speak for themselves
with the ever increasing numbers participating from 6m through to 10 GHz and
equally as important, from a wide UK geographical spread.
It has been a great year for UKAC participation and appreciation must also
be expressed to Richard G4WFR, Ian G0FCT, Roger G4BVY and Bob G0KYS for all
their prompt adjudicating and tabulation of results.
Thank you.

And a very Happy New Year (when it comes) to everyone on this reflector.

73 Ray GM4CXM
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