Whoa you say Field Day isn't a contest. Or is it.
For many groups, FD represents many things - an opportunity for some fun, a
chance to do a bit of camping, a great opportunity to show the public what
ham radio is about, help new hams see what it's all about. But for some
it's a contest!
To that end I want to raise an issue that I've just become aware of. Back
in the day (I'm talking way back in the 1960's) serious groups could put
multiple radios on the air but with a time sharing device lovingly known as
the Octopus, you could put three radios on 3 bands but have them only count
as one! Yeah, if you transmitted on radio a, radio b and c were locked out.
Putting 4 on such a loop was rather impractical. So you could have three
setups of 3 radios all going like mad and only be in the 3 transmitter class
because you were only transmitting no more than 3 at any given instant.
Well the Contest Advisory Committee came up with a modification to the rule
that killed the Octopus! It was something that Gene, W3ZZ, and I were
pretty focused on and it was Gene's brilliant idea to simply say that once
you made a contact on any band/mode you could not make another contact on a
different band/mode for 10 minutes. So now you could have three radios
going but you couldn't get number 4 in the mix.
Well, somehow over the years, this rule was removed so today the Octopus is
once again legit! But is it fair? (yeah, I know all's fair in love, war
and contesting).
I would love some help in convincing the CAC and ARRL to reinstitute the
rule to kill the 'pus or any other time sharing device. SO2R is not on
either (as our UK mates would say).
Pete, W1RM
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