By John Lindholm, W1XX
Ken, K3IU, recently did an analysis of the club’s Champions competition that determined the number of members participating in each contest. Also during a recent meeting, we discussed which contests we wished to continue sponsoring a plaque. A number value of 1 to 3 was assigned – with 1 being the most desirable. As has often happened with such discussions, nothing seems to ever come of it. Anyway…looking at Ken’s analysis and using the 1 to 3 ranking, the following contests – with a little stretch – earn a 1 ranking:
CQ WW RTTY
CQ WW DX SSB
CQ WW DX CW
ARRL 10
ARRL RTTY RU
CQ WPX RTTY
ARRL DX PHONE
CQ WPX SSB
NEQP
The next question is: which of these contests in the most recent year available did CTRI sponsor a plaque? Surprisingly, there are only three: 2013 ARRL RU New England Single Op Low Power; 2013 CQ WPX RTTY Multi-2 USA; 2013 NEQP Rhode Island Single Op. Plaque programs for 2014 for both ARRL and CQ seem to be in somewhat administrative disarray. Of the other six high value contests to CTRI members, only ARRL 10 does not offer plaques.
So what’s the point? Well, now that the club treasury is in the process of being refurbished, do we as a club want to expand our plaque commitment to other #1 contests…or even reach down to some #2 ranked contests such as Sweepstakes?
Food for thought and perhaps a meeting agenda item that hopefully will go somewhere.
PS (from K3IU): To see the analysis John referred to above go to this link:
http://ctri.club/2014/08/03/small-analysis-of-the-ctri-champions-competition/
Sponsoring Contest Plaques was always considered one way of getting the CTRI name out to the contesting community with the an ancillary benefit of perhaps attracting new members. I think the most we ever did was four and back when they were $50/each, that was about all the treasury could afford.
Here are my notes from 2006 just for the record:
ARRL SS SSB LP NE (Note: 2005 Plaque – Currently sponsored by ICOM)
ARRL DX SSB LP NE (Note: New Plaque to be proposed)
NAQP Jan SSB LP NE (Note: No info P. Does NCJ give plaques for anything?)
ARRL RTTY ROUNDUP LP NE (Note: 2006laque – West Mountain Radio)
We had difficulty in getting CQ to work with us on plaques even back then. I doubt if the situation has improved unless the WWROF has decided to pick up managing the CQ plaque and certificate program. In any event,
IMHO, I would go for
ARRL RTTY RU
CQ WPX RTTY
CQ WPX SSB
ARRL DX PHONE
The reason being that these contests seem to attract the most interest. Whether LP or HP, not sure. I figure we have sponsored the NEQP plaque long enough but I guess that could be kept on.
I would keep the number of plaques sponsored to four.
One final observation. Note that all of the earlier plaques I mentioned were restricted to NE. The reason being that the W/VE plaques were already sponsored either by commercial outfits or big contest clubs.
73
Jim KS1J