[VHFcontesting] VHF Rules Revisions - Part VI

[kevin kaufhold]

Part VI – Additional Proposals and Conclusion. Here
are some more ideas regarding the clubs.  

The addition of club participation in the June VHF QSO
Party.  I am been informed that the club competition
will be in effect for the 2004 June VHF QSO Party. 
Having the club competition made part of the June VHF
is an obvious thing to do, as club competition has
been with us in the September VHF since 1999, and has
been part of the January VHF SS since it began.  

Competing Club Loyalties.  Many VHF active hams are in
more than one club, and these clubs may actually
compete against each other.  Competing club loyalties
can prove to be a disaster for a smaller club when it
loses a good contest operator. This situation is
especially critical with the VHF clubs.  Local ops are
important to VHF activities, and the loss of great
contest ops to other clubs can stop a VHF oriented
club right in its tracks. The critical mass and
enthusiasm necessary to support a local club can be
sapped away in the process, since 10% of the members
of any club, whether it is a ham radio club or
otherwise, do 90% of all the work of that club.

I believe the CAC may have discussed this general
matter before.  In any event, I propose allowing the
contest entrant to split up his or her own score among
the clubs that he or she is loyal to. The club member
should be able to have his score counted towards the
club he or she is a member of. Such a contest rule
would prevent the tensions that currently occur when
two or more clubs vie for the attention of an
excellent contest operator.  Competing club loyalties
not only creates ruffled feathers, it can and does
have the effect of wholesale destroying some clubs
altogether.  Such occurrences cannot serve to advance
the number of log entries, they can only have the
opposite effect instead:  fewer entries via fewer
local clubs.   

Conclusion.  I feel that we should not be fooling
around with the contest rules merely on hope that the
number of log entries may increase as a result.  It is
a hope that is not borne out by a historical review of
the VHF contests. Instead of changing the rules, we
need only to jump-start the clubs.  As I stated in my
first E-mail post on this subject, I loosely call my
thoughts a “minimalist club oriented view”.  It is
minimalist in terms of changing the existing rules. 
It is “maximalist” in terms of pushing the VHF club
format.  

Who would have thought that some hams in the Philly
area back in the 1950’s would come to absolutely
dominate VHF club contesting over several decades? 
But that is exactly what a few hams have done through
membership in the Mt. Airy VHF Club. Or that Rochester
NY would be the site of another great club that has
engaged in a multi-decade chase for the unlimited club
title?  Or the other 28 clubs that entered last year’s
January club competition?  Imagine a total of only 30
clubs, out of 245 SMSAs around the country.  Each SMSA
probably is capable of supporting at least one local
club.  The possibilities are great.  Picture 245 clubs
all competing for the three club titles.  Zikes, how
many entries would there then be!!  

All you need to do is make a major push on the VHF
Clubs.   You don’t need much else.  

Kevin Kaufhold
W9GKA




__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Search - Faster. Easier. Bingo.
http://search.yahoo.com