[UK-CONTEST] RSGB DX Contest Update

[Lee Volante]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for this update.  I've been without Internet at home for over a week 
so I'm only just catching up properly now.

Well done to you and Clive for your progress so far with the proposal. To my 
eyes you've ticked all of the boxes in terms of public consultation, 
amending the proposal having been given feedback, and having been mindful of 
other ongoing events on the same weekend.

Without delving too much into the minutiae of the rules, the key things 
which I am interested in are what happens next.

1) Proposal is broadly accepted by the Contest Committee. This could lead 
some to wonder why the committee themselves were unable to consider this 
sort of bold change themselves. It could also then set a precedent that with 
the appropriate set of clear thinking, structured documentation and a body 
of public support any of the rules or contests could be similarly changed. 
It remains debateable whether this is a good thing. On the one hand, it 
gives the contesting public / customers of the committee / RSGB members much 
more of a hands on say in the contest programme than they do now. On the 
other hand, this approach could become unwieldy, and the hard working 
committee could feel their ability to manage their own contest programme 
diminished. Sadly it may come down to "power and politics," and the 
suggestion from a previous thread that the ideal communication methods 
between committee and everyone else are yet to be found.

2) Proposal is politely declined by the Contest Committee. This could lead 
to some frustration from those enthused by the idea, and thoughts of the 
"Not invented here" syndrome i.e. changes of this nature should be seen to 
have come from within the committee.  If this were the case, would Chris and 
Clive, supported by others, run the contest themselves anyway?  Perhaps even 
use the same dates if 21/28 continues and let market forces decide which is 
the favoured event. BARTG, WAB and others run their own UK based contests 
across all modes. Dave BUO is heavily involved with the EUSprint.

Starting in 2004, we already had UK DX Contests on CW, SSB and Data run by 
the Scottish-Russian team, although only the Data modes one persisted for 
many years. Remember this posted on here. It's not a million miles away from 
the new proposal:  "SD V10.09 supports the new UK DX contest.  The SSB leg 
takes place from 1200 GMT Saturday 10th January to 1200 GMT Sunday 11th 
January. There are single and all-band categories on the usual bands from 
160m to 10m.  It's an everyone work everyone event with the emphasis (extra 
points and multipliers) on working UK stations."  Why did these ultimately 
fail?  Marketing?  Rules that weren't liked?  Clash with AFS season?  Slow 
turnaround of results and awards?  Lack of 'RSGB' in the title?  On many 
levels they succeeded with the basics of running a successful contest.

These old contests pre-date the growth in the 80mCC series of course which 
is one reason to consider trying again. But have we really thought about why 
we want a RSGB all band DX contest? What would the experience of the new 
contest be like for the majority of entrants that they wouldn't achieve in 
many other contests in the calendar. Rate? CQWW, WPX, RDXC, EUHFC etc. would 
likely offer more, and they offer plenty of opportunities for certificates. 
Do you have a second or third tier station and feel CQWW is too much - then 
try the Ukranian DX or CQM or others - more room on the bands and still 
plenty of activity.  Want to feel special and generate a pileup all day - 
the sad fact is that for many of the HF contest weekends, UK stations are 
sparse and are often sought after DXCC multipliers. Or try the existing IOTA 
or BERU which already have some bias towards UK stations. Strategy?  IOTA, 
WAE and others have diverse rules that mean that strategic operating is 
needed to do well.  Want some UK competition - just look at the UK scores 
for the many contests where results filtering by country is possible. 
There's nothing unique about the new proposal other than it would be an RSGB 
event. UBN's are not offered universally but this is improving. Online 
scoring is an innovative idea, but the 80mCC entrants shunned it when 
offered.  I suggest there are many opportunities for the 80mCC entrants to 
take next steps in HF contesting already. (I might guess Alan XSV's "Next 
steps in Contesting" at the Convention next week would include some similar 
thoughts.)  Do we just need to stimulate more interest in other contests 
apart from those run by the RSGB, perhaps by compiling UK-centric results 
and awards from a range of existing international events?

At present there's an RSGB contest staking claim to 21 and 28 MHz for 12 
hours on an October Sunday. Increasing to more bands, or in future more 
hours is new territory. There's also that guideline from IARU to refrain 
from organising new all band / mixed mode contests to appease non-contesters 
to think about.

73,

Lee G0MTN


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris Tran GM3WOJ" <gm3woj at christran.net>
To: <uk-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Saturday, October 06, 2012 8:44 AM
Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] RSGB DX Contest Update


> Hello Ian (GM3SEK) et al
>
> Thanks for your feedback and the feedback from everyone else.  It is 
> perhaps
> worth clarifying exactly why Clive and I decided to make this proposal for 
> a
> new contest.
>