[VHFcontesting] ARRL Membership Services Committee VHF/UHF Awards and Contest Survey

[James Ahlgren MD]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for the interest and the effort to survey for ideas.  I have
downloaded the survey and will complete it as requested.

However, the problem does not lie with the rules.  There is a hard core of
contesters who enjoy the VHF contests and the chance they give (through a
high level of activity) to really see what the propagation can do.  This
group will continue to be active regardless of rules changes.  Rule changes
will not bring in the casual operators.  The only way to increase the
activity is to reach out to the casual operator, by publicizing what
attracts others to the contests.  The way to do this is definitely NOT to
take the results and announcements out of QST.  The casual operators will
NOT access the contest results on the web site - they have no reason to,
since they are not yet participating.  Financial pressures notwithstanding,
the only way to give the average VHF operator the incentive to participate
in the contests is to expose him to the contests in the only ARRL
publication he reads, which is QST.  Content in QST is more important than
color spreads.

Wishing you success.

73,

Jim
W4RX

----- Original Message -----
From: "Henderson, Dan N1ND" <dhenderson at arrl.org>
To: "cq-contest" <cq-contest at contesting.com>; "VHF Contesting.com"
<vhfcontesting at contesting.com>; "VHF List" <vhf at w6yx.Stanford.EDU>
Sent: Monday, October 07, 2002 3:17 PM
Subject: [VHFcontesting] ARRL Membership Services Committee VHF/UHF Awards
and Contest Survey


ARRL VHF/UHF Contesting and Awards Survey

NEWINGTON, CT -- October 7, 2002

With a higher proportion of VHF-only licensees than ever before, one might
expect that VHF/UHF contesting would be experiencing a surge in popularity.
To the contrary, while the total QSOs being made in the multi-band contests
seems steady, the number of logs - and thus the number of serious
participants - has fallen off considerably since 1996. This has led the ARRL
to ask you for your thoughts on why this might be happening and how to best
address and reverse the trend. We'd also like to hear from you about the
ARRL VHF/UHF awards program in general.


The survey is the result of a request from the ARRL Board to look into ways
to increase participation. It is being sent to a random sample of regular
top-scorers and average participants, regardless of their score, plus clubs
that regularly participate in VHF/UHF club competitions. Our interest is in
gathering information we can use to improve the participation and quality of
both the various ARRL VHF/UHF contests and the ARRL VHF/UHF awards programs.
The detail and quality of information in your answers is especially
important to us.


The Survey -

The survey is organized into several areas of inquiry. The first group deals
exclusively with contesting:

Existing contests - how can their formats, rules, or reporting be improved
such that activity and log submissions are increased? This survey refers to
the following ARRL sponsored contests: January VHF Sweepstakes, June &
September VHF QSO Parties, August UHF Contest, 10 GHz and Up competition,
and the Oct/Nov EME Contest

New contest formats - are there new formats that would be attractive to the
existing contest community?

New participants - what improvements or additions to VHF/UHF contesting
would attract more operators to the sport? How can these operators be
reached?


A second area of interest is the ARRL VHF/UHF awards program and increasing
the level of interest and participation. The existing awards such as VUCC,
WAS, and DXCC, are derivatives of the HF awards program. There is some
concern that these awards either have too high an initial qualification
level or may be missing some interests of VHF/UHF operators. There are two
groups of questions:

Existing awards - how can their rules or categories might be improved so
that more activity is encouraged?

New awards - are there new award programs that would be attractive to
VHF/UHF operators?
Responding


Each topic has a series of questions related to either VHF/UHF contesting or
awards. Please select the answer that best matches your position or
situation. Please feel free to extend your remarks (use additional pages if
necessary). Your detailed comments are very important.

The survey is downloadable as an Adobe Acrobat file on the web at
http://www.arrl.org/contests/announcements/vhf-survey.pdf

It should be completed and returned by regular mail to: VHF/UHF Survey,
attn: Wayne Mills, N7NG, ARRL, 225 Main St, Newington CT 06111. We would
like to have the returned surveys by October 31st. You may copy the blank
survey and distribute it to other amateurs, particularly to operators that
may not be active in VHF/UHF contesting now. A summary of the results will
be available in the future.

Thanks and 73

Dan Henderson, N1ND
ARRL Contest Branch Manager


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