Hello Folks
The changes in the political structure of Northern Canada have left many
contest sponsors in a situation where their rules are now out of date. In
reviewing many of the contests coming up, there are a lot of ambiguities and
misuse of terms. Here is a review of the situation that might help those
doing the revisions.
Canada now consists of 10 provinces and 3 territories. These are, going
clockwise around the map from the East coast:
Newfoundland and Labrador (NF) VO1 and VO2
Nova Scotia (NS) VE1
Prince Edward Island (PE) VY2 and some VE1
New Brunswick (NB) VE9 and some VE1
Quebec (QC) VE2 and VA2
Ontario (ON) VE3 and VA3
Manitoba (MB) VE4
Saskatchewan (SK) VE5
Alberta (AB) VE6
British Columbia (BC) VE7
Yukon (YT) VY1
Northwest Territories (NT) VE8
Nunavut (NU) VY0 and possibly some VE8
There are a number of ways of dealing with these in your particular contest.
In the ARRL SS, the territories are lumped together with VY1, VE8 and VY0
counting as one multiplier, similarly to the US Caribbean and Pacific
territories.
In the RAC contests, each of the 13 political entities counts as a
multiplier. If you want to call them all provinces for the sake of
simplicity, I'm not too worried. It won't cause anyone to do the wrong thing
during the contest.
The complication arises when some organizations separate VO1 and VO2 and
count VO2 as a separate province! If you insist on making VO2 a separate
multiplier, please don't call it a province! It is only half a province. It
is a Call Area. That is what makes it unique.
If you are dividing Canada up for multipliers, there seem to be three
choices now
1) 13 Multipliers (Provinces and Territories)
2) 11 Multipliers (Provinces and the lumped Territories)
3) 14 Multiplier Call Areas ( VE1-9, VO1, VO2, VY0, VY1, VY2)
I, personally, have a hard time justifying anything else beyond the 3
choices above, but please get rid of the ambiguities. Even after that, we
will be dealing with VE1's in PEI and NB, VY2's operating /3 and all the
other things we invent to make simple things more interesting! You will
notice I have not mentioned to this point CY9 and CY0 which are separate
DXCC countries. That usually takes them off the domestic multiplier list.
The RAC contests are exceptions where they count as Nova Scotia.
Please try to get rid of just saying "state and province multipliers". There
has been too many multiple interpretations in the past. Spell it out. If
K8CC works a VY0 and VO2 in the Michigan QSO Party, he has to know what to
do! (sorry Dave) If VE3EJ works a VE1 in NB during the Commonwealth Contest,
he has to know what to do! ( Yes, I know you know, John)
I hope this can be of some value to the contest organizers out there. Take a
look at the rules and see how they read and what they mean. See you in the
Contest!
73 Bob VE3KZ
ve3kz@rac.ca
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