[UK-CONTEST] 144 UKAC

Thu Jun 7 09:27:51 PDT 2012

Hi,

Another perspective from JO01. I have supported UKAC since it's inception 
and the Cumulatives that preceded that, over 30 years. So the decision not 
to compete this year in UKAC wasn't taken lightly. The M5 change combined 
with the multi-antenna restrictions finally got to me and I now do other 
things on Tuesday evenings.

The format of UKAC did need changing to attract new stations, and the 
previous method of including EU squares did have a bias. However a bias is 
now with other stations, and the scoring system needs looking at again to 
eliminate geographical bias for ANY part of the UK. We now have stations 
asking people to "beam to JO01" as everyone's pointing N &NW. The complete 
reverse of the previous situation of "please beam to GM". For years the GM's 
suffered from this negative bias, now we JO01 stations are suffering the 
same. OK maybe it's our turn to suffer, but two wrongs don't make a right. 
All that's happened is an alienation of a section of the radio community, 
and a placation of another section that were previously alienated. If that's 
how you increase participation overall, that's pretty poor. The scoring 
needs to be re-visited ; maybe a score of 2 for UK squares and 1 for EU 
squares is a better idea, or if you want to exclude EU all together, use 
postcodes only. I don't think we've really decided yet what UKAC is about.

Now there seems to be, conveniently, a perception that nobody except those 
in JO01 work any Europeans, and we are blessed with continuous outstanding 
propagation to the East. A look at the claimed scores will show that not to 
be the case, in fact many outside of JO01 are showing EU stations as their 
ODX.  Take this month's 144 UKAC, G0KWP IO93 ODX DK8SG 818km, MM0GPZ/p IO85 
ODX ON4ATA 679km, GM4JR IO85 ODX ON5AEN 672km. These stations are not 
exactly in the SE. If JO01 was such a great place to do UKAC, why wasn't 
there an upsurge in new stations as in IO83, other squares are available.

The following is taken from the claimed scores listing for the first 6 
sessions of 144 UKAC 2012, and shows the position in the table of the 
leading station in JO01, along with the number of contacts, the squares 
worked and ODX.

January:  14th   73  12  667km,  February:  24th   60  12  397km,  March: 
22nd  86  15  472km,  April:  32nd  52  12   560km,  May:  24th  67  14 
584km,  June: 10th  82   16  755km

The first 5 are G0PKT from a site on the coast near Brightlingsea, the 6th 
is G0XDI/p from a very good site on the Isle of Sheppey. All show well under 
100 contacts and an average of  13.5 UK squares. Some stations are working 
20+ squares each session, even in the lower power categories. As far as I 
know this is under flat conditions, there have been no lift conditions 
during any of the sessions so far. I can use selective examples just as well 
as Ray can, somewhere in between lies the truth. Lies, damn lies and 
statistics! Remember G3PYE/p in JO02 are not your average fixed station and 
are <100km further North than some of us in JO01.

There's no doubt that activity has increased on Tuesday nights, but at the 
weekend that's not the case. Lot's of reasons for that, activity breeds 
activity, weekend time is limited by other constraints, and a set couple of 
hours one evening a week is manageable. A lot of the stations in JO01 who 
used to come on to support their local clubs have disappeared, as the main 
club station no longer sees the UKAC as viable with the changes. Obviously 
in other areas the reverse is true. Somewhere in the middle lies an answer 
to more participation from those who have left and those that have yet to 
join in UKAC.

So committee don't rest on your laurels just because it appears that 
everything is ok, it isn't. It could be better, it may be hard to find a 
solution, but that's no reason not to try.

73

Bob G8HGN

PS: I haven't gone over to the dark side 
yet......................................... HF contests :0))

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "UKCONTEST" <ukcontest at btconnect.com>
To: "UK Contesting" <uk-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2012 8:40 PM
Subject: [UK-CONTEST] 144 UKAC

> Hi all
>
> I entered the 144MHz UKAC Contest last night, mainly to check out the
> kit for Sunday's PW contest.
>
> I used to operate in the UKAC contests a few years ago, but work has
> taken me away from home Monday - Friday so unless by fluke, accident or
> in this case a bank holiday, I don't operate in these contests. My entry
> is not a serious entry as I probably won't be able to compete again this
> year, in the UKAC contests.
>
> I must say that there does seem to be a lot more activity from the
> central parts of GB this time around. Less JO squares seemed to be
> active. I wonder why ?
>
> Anyway I pondered an interesting question during my weekly 250 mile
> commute to work, a question which is probably about rubber clocking....
>
> So I commenced a contact with F1VNR/P, 30 seconds before the contest
> finished. He called me.
>
> I commenced logging the contact but didn't complete the details until
> about 1 minute 30 seconds after the contest finished, hitting the enter
> key as I did.
>
> (Clearly I was past the finish time, but it was a new square for me this
> year and loosing points isn't an issue).
>
> However if I pressed the enter key at the start of the QSO (30 seconds
> before the end) and then edited the so logged QSO, would that count as a
> valid QSO? After all the QSO start time & finish time used to be the
> paper logs.
>
> At what point is a QSO logged, and credit given for, in a contest?
>
> As an amusing aside, a local G8 (I think) called me after I completed
> the contact to say I was past the contest finish time, according to his
> atomic clock that is. (I resisted asking did he have an atomic rooster
> to go with....).
>
> This isn't a serious entry for me so I am not bothered about loosing 
> points.
>
> 73
>
> Adrian MW1LCR
>
> _______________________________________________
> UK-Contest mailing list
> UK-Contest at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/uk-contest 