[UK-CONTEST] RadCom letters

[Bob G3PJT]

Hi

IMHO the way to change the perception of contests is to start to make it 
a bit more interesting for the non believer. And that means we need to 
get some articles in RadCom.
We have a contest column in RadCom and that's good. Also in September 
there will be a 2 pager on BERU which I wrote and submitted last week. 
Peter G3PHO has written a piece on his VP2V trip which will also appear 
shortly.

Now what else might be written?  How about a really technical article on 
the GR2HQ IT system and the optimisation of the score - looked pretty 
challenging to me as I eavesdropped on the GR2HQ reflector. And I guess 
there will be some good articles from the up coming IOTA bash (?)  The 
VHF guys will also I am sure have some things of wider interest they can 
talk about.

As a part of every contest we need to think about the pre and post 
publicity to convince non believers - and I mean not just the publishing 
of results.

I would doubt the RSGB CC is going to reduce the number of contests just 
because of some wingers in Last Word but they might if not many folks 
participate.
In any case the RSGB does not have control over the vast majority of 
contests. So winging in Last Word isn't going to change anything.
Contests have been a spur to innovation since the beginning of amateur 
radio and that spur is still operating.
But we do have to bang the drum a bit harder.

73 Bob G3PJT