ARLA/CLUSTER: Fox Mike Hotel Portable Operations Challenge by the Big Guns and the Little Pistols who operate a portable station.

[João Costa > CT1FBF]

A new contest has been announced that will level the competitive playing
field between the Big Guns and the Little Pistols who operate a portable
station. It’s called the Fox Mike Hotel *Portable Operations Challenge*.

“The scoring metric is the distance-per-power metric with multipliers for
portable operators and the difficulty of the transmission mode,� said *Ed
Durrant DD5LP*, a member of the Steering Committee for the POC.

“We are using kilometres-per-watt as the score for a contact. But those
using a more difficult transmission mode such as phone will get a higher
multiplier than those using the more efficient modes of CW and digital.
Being a portable station will receive an additional multiplier, especially
when contacting another portable station.�

The scoring system is based upon the golf metaphor of the handicap index
used to equalize the opportunity for all players to win when they have
unequal ability and play on courses with varying levels of difficulty.

The POC is being sponsored by ARRL’s National Contesting Journal, the UK DX
Foundation (CDXC), the Hellenic Amateur Radio Association of Australia and
the South African Amateur Radio League.

NCJ Editor, Dr. Scott Wright K0MD, said, “NCJ is very pleased to be an
official sponsor of this contest event. It will encourage activity by
operators who are “limited by real-estate,� and do not have a full-blown
contest station. Events like this stimulate more interest in contesting and
it will have an international scope to give chances to snare some new DXCC
entities.�

Don Field G3XTT, Editor of Practical Wireless magazine and highly
experienced DX contester who is President of the UK DX Foundation, added
“This is an exciting new contest event. I’m happy to serve on the Steering
Committee and help in any way I can!�

A highly competitive contest operator from Australia, Tommy Horozakis
VK2IR, was very enthusiastic to join the Steering Committee to help plan
the POC: I'm really excited to be part of the team and can't wait to get
started.�
Tommy VK2IR added that the Hellenic Amateur Radio Association of Australia
was pleased to be an award plaque sponsor for the event.

The Portable Ops Challenge is the brainchild of *Frank Howell K4FMH *who
says his portable ops team was the inspiration. “I hear many operators who
get outdoors and try to dip their hands in a conventional contest saying
two things. They enjoyed the competition. And it’s a shame that the Big
Guns dominate the realistic chances of winning. That’s simply the way it is
in the vast majority of contests but it made my portable ops team think: is
there a way to level the playing field? I think the Steering Committee
consisting of both veteran DX contest participants and some of the best
portable operators in the world has come up with something worth giving a
go,� Frank K4FMH said.
“I’d say the question is, whether the BigGuns can win using the handicap
system that the Steering Committee has produced. With this scoring metric,
it’s more about radio sport than radio gear. But we won’t know until many
of the Big Guns enter the Portable Ops Challenge. We are building it but
will the Big Guns come?�
Only time will tell but the first POC is nearing it’s inaugural launch.

Scheduled for October 3 and 4, 2020, the POC’s rules and other relevant
documents are located at foxmikehotel.com/challenge.
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