80m AFS CW 2014

The Committee introduced a number of changes for the 2014 events with the intention of

(i) bringing them into line with IARU band planning and

(ii) enabling Societies to maximise their resources by defining “virtual meeting-places”.

Apologies have already been tendered for the typos which necessitated the last-minute changes in respect of (i).  For the CW event there were only a couple of Soapbox comments in direct opposition and the loss of bandwidth appears not to have affected the contest in the slightest.

Change (ii) resulted from lobbying from certain groups that the Committee considered did appear to be disadvantaged by the old distance rule.  In the event, the result was not entirely what was expected.  However, there was not a single Soapbox comment about this rule change with the logs.

There are always comments about conditions, activity levels, participation and so on.  It can be very instructive to go back through the results archive and see what things were like up to ten years (or more) ago.  In fact, with the sole exception of 2012, when conditions were truly abysmal, the contest has remained largely stable in the last decade with a top score of 278 QSOs, plus-or-minus 12, 255 logs and checklogs (again plus-or-minus 12) and 87 teams, plus-or-minus 5.

There were a (very) few comments suggesting a power restriction for this event. The 80m AFS Contests are, and have always been, knock-down, drag-out affairs.  The 80mCCs have a 100W power limit and a reduced duration; they were intended for beginners and improvers.  The AFS Contests have always been open to all comers, including the big boys, and all the more credit is due to the smaller stations that get involved and mix it with the bruisers ... without them it would be no contest at all!

Now to a problem:

This year, members of a specialist interest group not actually competing in AFS were active during the event and many of them chose to work only, or mostly, their own members.  This caused a considerable disadvantage to teams represented by operators who were not members of the group concerned.  Fortunately, by the narrowest of margins, the award-winning positions were not affected.  The group concerned has been notified of the situation and a simple solution suggested.  The Committee wishes to make it clear that “cheerleading” (the practice of giving points only or mostly to one competitor or group of competitors) is never within the spirit of the contest and that such contacts are liable to be excluded in future.

RESULTS:

Congratulations to Three As Contest Group who have taken full advantage of the “virtual meeting-place” rule change to put together three teams that have completely swept the board and captured the Edgware Trophy and all its supporting certificates.

It must be heartbreaking for Cray Valley who had two stations, including the overall individual leader, in the top ten, to lose out - but strength in depth has prevailed.

Congratulations to Mark, M0DXR, for an outstanding performance in topping the individual listing to take the Marconi Trophy two years in succession, and to Graham, G4FNL, and Fraser, G4BJM, for filling 2nd and 3rd places

g3ufy@rsgbcc.org