[UK-CONTEST] New RSGB DX Contest

[Peter Day]

I've read a lot of submissions to this topic and now here's my 2 cents 
worth :-)

As a keen supporter of the VK-ZL-Oceania Contest over the past 40 or so 
years I am worried about the effect the proposed new RSGB one would have 
on this excellent contest, which is very much neglected by UK operators. 
Due to UK apathy towards it I have managed to win, or come second in, 
the phone and/or cw sections of the contest several times over the 
years.... not difficult when only 3 or 4 UK stations enter a log! Sadly 
I haven't been able to support the CW weekend recently as it clashes 
with RSGB Convention.

At the moment, eg this coming weekend, it is possible to do both the 
RSGB 21/28 and the  Oceania (SSB) contest as there is only 1 hour 
overlap, on the Sunday morning. This excellent Oceania contest is also 
hammered again the following weekend in its CW section when the RSGB 
Convention takes place over the same weekend, effectively draining the 
contest of UK operators like myself who are faced with a very difficult 
choice of contest or convention.

Having lived and operated in ZL for several years in the past, I know 
there is some ill feeling Down Under about the way we in the UK tend to 
ignore their main HF contest of the year. VKs and ZLs support "our" BERU 
in fairly large numbers for the size of their populations but we don't 
reciprocate when its their contest. Just imagine how we in the UK would 
feel if Canada held an international all band SSB contest or had a major 
DX Convention over the BERU weekend!

If the proposed new RSGB contest were to come about it would have a much 
increased overlap and would create a problem for people like myself who, 
in the RSGB one, would wish to enter mixed mode sections yet also devote 
a lot of time to the single mode Oceania test. (Oceania has two 
weekends, one for ssb and one for CW). Its been pointed out that we 
could enter our RSGB logs into the Oceania one, rather like our SSB 
Field Day logs are sent to DARC. I can see some problems with that if 
the contest exchange is not the same. What's wrong with a plain 
Report+serial number exchange? AT least the contest software cant 
predict the incoming serial number, unlike zones and even locators. Do 
we really need to send postcodes or Locator squares? If we did so, how 
would the Oceania Contest adjudicating software handle the extra column 
in the logs submitted by those who enter both contests?

I also don't want to see yet another all band, mixed mode contest! I 
agree with those who would like a short time scale, say 12 hours on a 
Sunday and limited bands (20,15 & 10). ... why not keep the present 
21-28 format and just add 20 metres to it?

I do get the feeling at times that some of you guys are more addicted to 
contests than is good for you :-)

See you for more heated but constructive discussion at the Convention!


Peter, G3PHO