ARLA/CLUSTER: Proposta australiana para mudança do sistema de pontuação em VHF/UHF.

[João Gonçalves Costa]

Distance-based scoring proposal

A proposal for a change to distance based scoring has been published by Andrew VK1DA and Colin VK5DK. It follows several years of  discussion among some of the operators in the Australian VHF/UHF Field days, who have found that the scoring system used in these contests seems to have problems for operators in country areas. This proposal has been developed after several months of discussion via email.

The proposal outlines the problems seen with the grid square based scoring scheme. It points out that grid squares, apart from not being square, have different sizes depending on your latitude. Thus the grid square scoring system does not give all vk operators the same rewards for making the same distance contacts.

While many operators think of vhf dx as the contacts made on 6m or (much less often) on 2m via the ionosphere, the primary interest of VHF and UHF specialists is in tropospheric propagation which does not involve ionospheric reflection. The distance spanned by contacts is the primary measure of the difficulty of a contact, with the vital factors being the power used, the antenna gain and receiver sensitivity combined with operator skill to make successful long distance contacts.

The sponsors of the proposal believe that instead of rewarding operators on the basis of the grid squares worked, a distance based score would make more sense for vhf-uhf contacts and could be consistently applied in all parts of the country.

Well, what about rovers? Rovers are stations who try to operate from as many different grid squares as possible. As a distance formula would not work well with rovers, it has been suggested that the rover stations would continue to use grid squares for their scoring. They could continue to make contacts with all stations, the contacts qualifying both operators for the points applying to their operating category.

The other major change proposed is the introduction of a separate category for the 6m, 2m and 70cm bands. This category caters directly for those operators who have multiband radios such as the popular FT857, FT897, IC706, IC7000, TS2000 and who do not have equipment for any higher bands. This would take away any concerns about the higher weighting given to the microwave bands. This proposal caters for the very large number of operators who are equipped for 6m, 2m and 70cm via their multiband radios, and gives them a separate category to compete in. Colin and Andrew think this will boost operator numbers in the event and give those excellent radios a little more use and a lot more radio amateurs who already have suitable equipment will consider operating in these events.

The proposal is available on the net for all to read. The address is www.vk1da.net  and you'll find the first item on the home page is a link to the proposal. After reading the proposal you are invited to participate in a short survey which asks for some details of your past operating bands in these events, your future plans, whether you like the ideas in the proposal and invites you to make any other suggestions that you think will improve these field days in some way.

Andrew VK1DA & Colin VK5DK

Fonte: The Wireless Institute of Australia - WIA