I disagree with the idea that operating split during a contest is
Verboten.
Working split is something that is done to react to a specific set of
circumstances - and I don't see the difference between being in a contest
or not.
The set of circumstances is pretty intuitive. If you have a pileup and
people you come back to are not hearing you because of the pileup. One of
the things that helps enable this is propagation.
I have used split during a contest exactly twice. You do need to be aware
of the impact it can have on QRM - and in both cases - I took steps to
mitigate it.
One of these came while operating from UA0C during the Friendship Radio
Games. I was essentially a special event station and the European pileup
was having a hard time hearing me come back to them. This really wasn't
what most people think of as a contest - but going split gave me an
advantage that eventually resulted in a gold medal.
The other time was at KL7RA on 10SSB during a CQ WW SSB contest - when we
had a marginal opening to Europe and a MASSIVE pileup. I ended up on
something like 29.200 MHz - and ended up going split because the Europeans
could not hear me over those who had to call over and over. I actually
ended up with two pileups - one up 5 and the other up 10.
The whole point is to maximize the QSO potential of any situation. In a
contest - you should do whatever you can to maximize your QSOs. (that is
within the rules and regulations of a contest). I don't see where going
split crosses any ethical boundaries - especially when done on part of the
band that is not very crowded.
Tree N6TR
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