Paul Bourque "is quoted as writing:
"All equipment SHOULD be capable of communications at a range of at
least 5 km." What we're essentially trying to prevent is having
stations work each other from across the parking lot using 500 mw
exciters or radios connected to dummy loads, and essentially
fabricating contacts. If you happen to work a close by station with
radios that are capable of longer range communications, have at it.
When this was first mentioned, I went and looked at the complete
rules, and indeed it specified a minimum distance for contacts of 5
km. Perhaps if they didn't mean to require a minimum distance for a
contact, they should not have put it in the rules. ( Yes, the grid
square doesn't verify the distance as greater than 5 km, but it
doesn't verify the power limits, either. We are expected to be on our
honor to follow the rules. )
I went back to look at that rule to quote it here, as the page
https://www.arrl.org/june-vhf had a link to the full .pdf of the
rules, but that link apparently has broken in the last 24 hours. It
was there, now it isn't. I did notice that
https://www.arrl.org/june-vhf mentions only the addition of two
bands to the FM category, but not this rule change. I don't know what
other rule changes were not mentioned there.
Another observation on Paul's comment - radios connected to dummy
loads may only get across the parking lot, but 500 mw exciters with a
quarter wave of wire sticking out will clearly get more than 5 km.
Look on youtube for people doing 30+ miles with 500 mw PMR radios.
Alan
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