[UK-CONTEST] Was NFD originally an emergency capability test?

[David Honey]

Many international contests have separate sections that cover assisted 
and unassisted operation. Using RBN, or a skimmer, or the cluster, 
effectively makes it an assisted operation. I think the intent of the 
restricted and (even more so) qrp sections were to enable clubs to put 
together a simple station that did not rely upon such assisted 
operation. If assisted operation is allowed in these sections, then 
effectively it requires that stations use that capability in order to be 
competitive. I think that would be a shame. I have no objection to the 
open section using such capabilities. This is on the basis that an 
entrant will already be planning a much larger operation and presumably 
will have the resources to do so. But I would prefer that 
RBN/skimmer/cluster use was not allowed in the qrp and probably 
restricted sections.

To pick up a point that Dave G3YMC made, I think the contest committee 
should consider whether qrp should mean 5W rather than 10W. Currently, 
stations using 10W for the NFD entry cannot enter in the QRP section for 
DARC, for example, since they define QRP as 5W. Since most of the 
sections we work in the QRP section are taking part in Germany, 
Netherlands, Belgium and so on, there is something to be said on using a 
harmonised power limit for QRP sections.

Kind regards,
David M0DHO