[UK-CONTEST] RSGB 21/28 contest - WAB?

[Peter Bowyer]

On 4 August 2012 10:34, Darren Collins (G0TSM) <daz at g0tsm.com> wrote:
>
> I've been browsing through the results of the 2011 RSGB 21/28 contest.
> One of the soapbox comments mentions sending WAB as opposed to district
> codes (Which was changed from county codes). This got my interest as I
> was asked for my WAB square a few times in the IOTA contest. So why do
> we send an exchange which no one (I'm aware of) collects? Perhaps we
> should send our 4-digit WAB square but only the first two letters are
> the mults, this would make around 63 mults available as opposed to 124
> district codes, but may drum up more interest as there seems to be a WAB
> following.

Some history from a grey-haired beardie who helped introduce District
Codes back in the day.....

The reason district codes were chosen in the first place (back in
1998) to replace the increasingly obsolescent county codes, was that
we wanted a system that was administered outside the hobby, one that
most entrants would be familiar with without having to look a lot of
stuff up, and that wasn't going to change in the foreseeable future. I
think we did a good job choosing postcode districts - they've gained
universal acceptance and casual entrants almost always catch on
quickly and know what to send. The potential confusion with W, E, S,
B, L and G codes seems not to cause a problem any more.

WAB squares were considered, but we thought they failed the test that
most people should know their own multiplier without having to look it
up. Which in those days meant heading down to the local WH Smiths and
buying an OS map.

We also believed that district codes provided about the right number
and layout of multipliers. Usefully, the size of postcode districts
follows population density (not exactly, but in the general case).
This is very much not the case with geographically-based systems such
as WAB, where all squares are the same size and a square in an urban
area can have orders of magnitude more population (and more amateurs)
in it than one in a rural area.

District codes were first introduced for VHF contests; HF contests and
the awards schemes followed suit shortly after.

I believe most of these arguments still hold. In these days of Google
Maps etc it's easier (although not trivial) to look up your own WAB
square without a trip to the High Street, but probably still not
something a casual operator would do on hearing a contest going on.

Peter G4MJS