ARRL VHF, RTTY Contest Entries Up in a Down Year

KD9ARC operates, and KC0JEO logs from W0EEE during the 2003 ARRL November Phone Sweepstakes. Overall ARRL November Sweepstakes entries were down more than 6 percent.

The father and daughter team of Melissa, N5KK, and Connie, K5CM, Marshall operate 20 meter CW for the Muskogee Amateur Radio Club's Field Day 2003 operation from Oklahoma. FD entries were up very slightly in 2003.

The well-equipped WB2FKO/R "rover" in grid square DM74. Overall participation in ARRL-sponsored VHF operating events was up in 2003, as was the number of rovers.

NEWINGTON, CT, Feb 18, 2004--ARRL Contest Branch Manager Dan Henderson, N1ND, reports a net decrease of 2.8 percent in log submissions last year for all ARRL-sponsored operating events. The 18,434 logs turned in during 2003 represent a drop of 539 logs from 2002, which saw an all-time record of ARRL contest log submissions. Henderson says, however, that there's a silver lining in the statistics.

"Log submissions were up for six of the events and held steady for several others," he observed. "The largest changes really came from two events: RTTY--experiencing a burst of popularity with the ease of interfacing radios and computers--was up by just over 30 percent, and VHF rose overall by 5 percent." Henderson said preliminary numbers for 2004 show another 20 percent hike in ARRL RTTY Roundup submissions.

Henderson said he was encouraged to see some rebound in VHF log submissions--from 2179 in 2002 to 2289 in 2003--although that jump resulted largely from better numbers for the ARRL June VHF QSO Party. Participation was down for the January VHF Sweepstakes as well as for the September VHF QSO Party.

The total number of "rovers" active in VHF events, at 272, was the third highest ever, Henderson noted, and within eight logs of the all-time record of 1993. Rover numbers were up by more than 12 percent in 2003 over the previous year, while the percentage of rovers among contest entrants rose slightly.

Participation in the ARRL International EME (moonbounce) Competition increased by more than 24 percent in 2003.

Henderson blamed sagging propagation for at least some of the drop-off in log submissions for HF events. "The decline of Cycle 23 affected submissions for the ARRL 10-Meter Contest in 2003, which was coming off a record number of submissions for any single weekend ARRL event in 2002, while major solar disturbances impacted the ARRL November Sweepstakes," he pointed out.

ARRL 10-Meter Contest submissions were off by 25.5 percent. Sweepstakes logs for both modes were off in 2003 by 6.4 percent. Field Day entries were up by less than one percent over 2002 numbers.

The 2003 ARRL Contest Calendar includes links to results of each operating event as well as the contest soapbox.

ARRL OPERATING EVENT	2003	2002	PERCENT CHANGE
Straight Key Night	167	169	-1.0
RTTY Roundup	745	572	+30.2
January VHF Sweepstakes	797	809	-1.4
International DX Contest	4620	4748	-2.7
June VHF QSO Party	831	674	+23.3
Field Day	2115	2110	+0.2
IARU HF World Championship	2127	1792	+18.7
UHF Contest	140	156	-10.3
10 GHz and Up Contest	141	134	+5.2
September VHF QSO Party	521	540	-3.5
International EME Competition	151	122	+23.8
November Sweepstakes	2824	3016	-6.4
160-Meter Contest	870	930	-6.4
10-Meter Contest	2385	3201	-25.5
TOTALS:	18,434	18,973	-2.8

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