Both the list moderator and my wife have told me recently that I
should be more participatory in things. In an attempt to get them
off my butt, I'll offer my two cents (not much after taxes and
inflation) on the subject of skeds during VHF contests.
People have been using skeds during VHF contests since at least the
AM days. During the period when I was most active, about 1975-1989,
skeds were generally considered a good thing. They brought activity
to the bands.
For a time there even was a net on 75 meters during the contest that
was there explicitly for the purpose of making skeds.
For a lot of these years, you could also use the telephone to make
skeds during a contest. Quite often on Sunday afternoon or Sunday
evening of the contest you'd find one of the operators at our little
multi-op station getting on the phone to call a VE1 in FN74, or some
K4 in FM06 to get them on the air. More often than not, they'd get
on, and we'd work them. Yea. Just as often, they'd work a whole
bunch of other guys in the area (even our competition) who would've
never worked that section or grid if we hadn't phoned and gotten that
DX station on the air. In those cases, everybody won.
If I recall, the whole thing about making skeds using non-amateur
means during a contest being evil was because of an event in 80's.
It seems a well funded HF station in the Caribbean didn't use their
substantial resources just on real estate, radios, antennas, and
transporting operators onto the island. They also ran up an
unusually high phone bill calling stations all over the world to get
on and work them during a CQ WorldWide DX Contest. The scheme
worked. It worked all too well. I guess some other people didn't
like the idea. Perhaps it was because they didn't think of it first,
or they didn't have the resources to match these guys' phone credit
card limits; I can't say for sure. Maybe there really was just an
attempt to keep the playing field somewhat level (that's the reason I
like to believe.) But, shortly thereafter, the practice was banned.
Now of course, there's the internet, which at the least is less
costly than the telephone. In fact you could say that almost
everybody who's even remotely serious about VHF contests has access
to the internet in some way. (Ironically, some of the groups on
ideally located mountain tops are so far from the wired world that
they might not have access.) For multi-ops, the packet spotting
network is already available to see what somebody else worked.
So, here is my proposal: Make it legally, ethically, and spiritually
acceptable for anyone to make skeds during the contest using the
internet (or if you must, over the phone.)
The reasoning is this: I consider VHF contests an opportunity to
make long distance contacts or at least challenging contacts (one
ham's local is another ham's DX). Making contacts well beyond the
ordinary. Pushing the limits. That's what the whole thing is about.
Or started out to be about. So, why not do everything you can to
facilitate this?
Wouldn't it be great if you could get on from your average home
location that's within a half hour of your job, with your above
average VHF station, and work some station on 2 meters 600 miles away
without an opening? How could you do that if you couldn't anyone's
attention with your average signal?
You could make the point that allowing this scheduling would make the
contest more fair and equitable than it is presently.
There are two obvious arguments against this.
The first is: How would you guarantee that the contacts are
legitimate? My response is that you'd do it the same way you do
right now. Check the logs. There is just as much chance for a
conspiracy if scheduling is allowed than if it isn't, I'd think. In
fact, if the skeds were made through a public resource like DXSummit
or DXWorld, then the contacts would be laid bare for the world at
large to see.
Gee, maybe I can only think of one argument.
I'd also like to ask this of the group: How is a contact arranged
over the internet any different than somebody (or some group)
equipping somebody else with an entire portable station, on a host of
bands, and sending them out into the world during the contest? Isn't
there just the slightest chance that the equipment supplier is going
to be the beneficiary of the majority of the rover's contacts? How
are the goodness of those contacts policed?
Oh yeah, I thought of the other argument. Maybe the active
participants really don't want this to be a VHF DX contest. Maybe
their preference is for a contest of lots of easy contacts.
Especially for the "haves."
Sorry this lasted so long. I guess I got too participatory.
73,
Clarke K1JX
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