It is obvious from some of the recent comments made on this and other forums
that there is a lot of discontent with the present 160M contests. Whatever
situation develops, it is up to the organisers to address those issues and
make adjustments to the rules accordingly. Since the begining of time,
mankind has exploited every loophole in every rulebook, amateur radio
operators are no different. It is time for "us" ie those interested and those
uninterested in 160M contests, to put forward a cohesive set of requirements
that the contest organisers should include in their rules.
Those of you who care enough to send in your ideas can either E-Mail them
directly to me if you would rather remain annonymous, or send them to this
forum for all to debate, either way I will collate as many of your ideas and
opinions as I can reasonably accomodate and send them to both CQ magazine and
the ARRL.The more people respond the better, if we only get 20 opinions we
can not expect the situation to change.
I will starty the ball rolling, here are my list of requirements for 160
contests, please let me know what you think.....
1 Each contest to last from "local dawn to dusk" not from 'x' hours Zulu
2 Points based upon radial measurement from stations QTH.
3 Band split into 3, .....non participants....US EAST + US West.....DX....
4 DX to US qsos can only be between windows ie split freq only.
5 Each organiser must appoint someone who's job is to tune the band logging
infringements. Disqualification rewards bad operating behaviour.
6 QSO must include serial number, lets reintroduce some skill into the qso
Thats enough to begin with, I will await the shark attack...
As far as packet and more recently internet spotting is concerned that is
something for general debate, I personally think that the word contest has
lost its meaning in the context of our activities...its hardly a contest if
you pit David against Goliath, no matter what the fable said, in the real
world the big guy wins.....So how far do we go to make more qsos than the
competition?? Answer...as far as the rules allow. What do we want to do
about this fiasco??
Thouhts, ideas, grumbles and mumbles, lets hear it all and lets DO SOMETHING!
Regards to you all, without you 160 would be really boring!!
Dave AA0RS / G3SZA
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