I'm not sure how I feel about the new rule.
There are runs and then there are runs. I've been on the run end of a
350+ hour and a slower runs of 150. A better way to accomplish the objective
of signing, would have been to establish a "time" limit, rather than a
"QSO" limit.
In a 350/hr, a station can knock off 6 Qs in a minute. In a 150/hr you're
down to 2.5. Under the rule, the second runner only needs to ID ever 80
seconds, while the first runner needs to ID every 30 seconds.
What is the maximum amount of time we would be satisfied with? Most will
agree (I think) 80 seconds is too long.
>From personal experience, I know that when the pile gets big it's a result
of a spot. If the run starts producing a more than average amount of
dupes I ID after every Q, since I know it was a bad spot. If the dupes are
just the usual ratio I ID every 2nd or 3rd.
I really don't know what all the bitching is about. Even in a 350 hour
the time lost to making 2 IDs amounts to less than three seconds. Just how
many 350/hrs have you had? If you had 36 of them (we can only dream) your
time lost would be 108 minutes. On the other extreme, IDing the required
every 10 minutes would cost the runner around 9 seconds/hr, or around 6
minutes...plus bunches of extra dupes from crappy spots and lost Qs from guys
who got tired of waiting and QSYed.
As far as the silliness of the rule which was noted by some...There are
lots of silly rules in contests. For example, the having to give up your
freq rule in the Sprint after a Q, is not required by FCC. No one complains
about that one
I use KJ3X in WPX and can tell you that if you didn't ID after a couple of
Qs, I didn't call you and you lost the KJ3 mult. Mults are a dime a dozen
in WPX and my time in the contest is not wasted on the guys who don't ID.
Bottom line: I would have preferred a time limit ID as opposed to a QSO
limit ID...but it is a step in the right direction.
K4XS/KJ3X
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