--- "Kenneth E. Harker" <kenharker@kenharker.com>
wrote:
> I don't think that it is unnatural or baffling to
> find some individual competitors who are rustrated,
> upset, or resentful that they are being forced to
> compete, on their own, against coordinated teams of
> stations that are mostly making contacts with
> themselves and nobody else. It's blatantly unfair,
> and isn't healthy for the sport.
And yet, doing so is actually the goal of the ARRL
contests...something that you pointed out earlier.
The commonality to ARRL contests is this rule: "1.
Object: To work as many amateur stations in as many
different 2 degrees × 1 degree grid squares as
possible using authorized frequencies above 50 MHz."
There are three variables: Callsign, Grid and Band.
Change any one, and you have a valid, loggable
contact. Though "callsign circling" is banned in the
rules (one call per station/family rule, etc), grid
circling is celebrated, and activating on multiple
bands is highly encouraged by everyone.
How can anyone be blamed for knowing the rules and
playing by them? Grid Circling Pack Rovers, Captive
Rovers who target the "mother ship" (they share a
similar genome), everyont tries to add bands. Each
finds a way to maximize their score (in comparison to
their peers).
It's time to either (1) get over it (understanding
that the only "level playing field" is the one that
YOU make by identifying similarly configured stations
and tracking their performance vs. yours -or- (2)
activate in a Sprint (where 'band' isn't a variable).
There is a severely reduced time within which Grid
Circling may occcir and M/O's don't play (so there are
no captive rovers). Maybe that explains the recent
resurgence of Sprint interest?
Interestingly, no one complains about the repeat QSO's
from the same stations that the 10-GHz and Above
Contest engenders (where the top scoring stations have
a LoggedQSO/UniqueCall ratio of over 10:1). Why not?
Ev, W2EV
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