[UK-CONTEST] New contest proposal

[Chris G3SJJ]

Ed and Committee, thank you for a very timely, considered and precise response. I agree with all the points and conclusions.

I do think the issue needs more thought and discussion. If it is deemed to retain the 21/28MHz contest then I would suggest a strong marketing and 
publicity campaign is undertaken. The profile of the event has already been raised on this reflector and it has been observed that M3/M6 licencees 
were active. An article in Radcom would help, with suggestions of simple antennas, propagation information, postcode districts etc. This could then be 
coupled with a dynamic international campaign. We often see adverts for other contests on our reflector.

If the eventual conclusion is that it is not worthwhile continuing the event I am not sure a replacement contest is really necessary. As you point of 
there are plenty of others on that weekend and also the RSGB has a solid portfolio of events throughout the year.

73 Chris G3SJJ






On 11/10/2012 10:59, Chairman, RSGB Contest Committee wrote:
>
> The Contest Committee has been in dialogue with GM3POI and GM3WOJ regarding their idea of a replacement for the 21/28MHz contest. We discussed this 
> proposal at our face-to-face meeting last month, so here is a summary of our conclusions.
>
> (1)  The Committee has suggested several times that the 21/28MHz contest is not viable, because it is really only of interest to UK amateurs, with 
> insufficient participation to provide a real contest for everyone else.  The contest's reprieves have relied on support from the few UK stations 
> entering, but posts now seem to show a consensus that it is not worth keeping.  The comparison on this reflector with similar numbers of UK 
> participants entering events lasting 90 minutes or 4 hours, where everyone can work everyone, is clearly not relevant to the 21/28MHz contest.
>
> (2)  Other countries have their own "Everyone works everyone and Ruritanian provinces are multipliers" contests.  These are generally poorly 
> supported, and adding country multipliers makes any UK contest virtually the same as all the others.
>
> (3)  It's hard to see how an overlap with the Oceania contest might be feasible.  Stations wanting to work a specific area won't appreciate being 
> pestered by those trying to work everyone -- not a good way to maintain friendly antipodean relations.  The idea that the RSGB has "squatter's 
> rights" is not borne out by the fact that the TRC has already started a contest over that weekend.
>
> (4)  We already has a very successful 24-hour mixed-mode international event, the IOTA contest.  This is biased to the UK in the sense that any UK 
> station will be high-scoring (perhaps a multiplier) for a caller, but does not rely on UK participation for its success.
>
> (5)  The Committee is aware that it needs to get more UK contesters to take part in weekend events, both RSGB and others. The success of the weekday 
> VHF and 80m club-oriented contests is encouraging, even though many participants are simply helping out their clubs. Chris and Clive's idea of 
> incorporating some aspect of a weekend contest into the 80mCC series is worth looking at, perhaps in relation to the IOTA Contest.
>
> (6)  In summary, the Contest Committee is not convinced that we need another international contest in the calendar, particularly as the IOTA contest 
> is the RSGB's "flagship" event.  In addition, the future of the 21/28MHz contest is again open to debate, for the reasons given above.
>
>
> The Committee is appreciative of the work from Chris and Clive in creating and putting forward this idea.  Don (G3XTT) has suggested that a "Europe 
> works the rest" contest might be feasible, but 24-hour and without the QTC element, and this might be an avenue worth exploring instead.
>
> 73,
>
> Ed Taylor, GW3SQX
> Chairman, RSGB Contest Committee
>
>
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