[UK-CONTEST] Separate reflectors?

[Andy Cook, G4PIQ]

I have to say that I'm sitting here quite bemused by this thread. To me,
there is now great reason for common ground across HF and VHF contesting,
both at the committee level, on the reflector, and (more widely than just
contesting) - for a convention. 

 

There always used to be a strong divide between VHF and HF, largely driven
by the fact that the former Class 'B' licensees didn't have access to HF.
This led to a quite separate VHF-only community. That all changed many years
ago when everyone gained access to HF. 

 

Likewise, it's purely down to the history of two separate contest committees
that the 'Core' rules for VHF and HF contests are different. The major aim
of a contest committee should be to drive increased participation in
contests. A significant barrier to getting new folks involved is the
complexity of the rules. How can we possibly justify having two separate
committees devising two separate rule structures. Yes - of course there will
be specific rules which need to be different (e.g. you don't exchange
locator info on HF) - but the 'core' rules - log submission times, penalty
structure, AFS distance rules etc. should all be common.  

 

On the subject of the reflector - I strongly support a single reflector to
allow debate on the many common issues of contesting in the UK. Contesting
is not exactly over-represented in the UK amateur population - and we'd do
well to avoid fragmenting it more. But there is a second powerful reason for
a common reflector - supporting a bit of education. The DELETE key is a
powerful one - if you're really not interested in a topic - then delete it.
But equally - by reading posts which you're not initially interested in -
you'll learn stuff. For example, died in the wool VHF-ers will learn
something about the vaguries of dawn enhancements and occasional high-angle
propagation on 160m at dawn, while 160m folks will learn about aircraft
scatter at 1.3 GHz. We also see evidence of this cross-fertilization
encouraging some VHF folks to try HF and some HF folks to try VHF - this is
good. 

 

There will always be grumpy, ill thought out, even troll-like postings which
irritate people. From my observations - these come from both communities -
and again - just use the DELETE key.

 

Finally, on the subject of the convention. Again - I strongly support a
joint convention covering both VHF and HF. Apart from the practical
difficulties of organizing and funding two sets of conventions (there are
fixed overheads - e.g. venue hire to fund at these events), if you aren't
retired, or you have a young family, getting an extra two weekends a year to
attend separate conventions just doesn't work for many of us. 

 

73,

 

Andy, G4PIQ