Arrl September VHF Contest comment

[george fremin iii]

klimas%uhavax.dnet at ipgate.hartford.edu writes:
: 
:                    << From Ron WZ1V, FN31 Connecticut >>
: which to stand: Consider that this past September VHF contest, a certain
: K3 limited-multiop station claims over 900 QSO's on 2 meters! Do we now
: have a new all-time record? I am sure you serious VHF'ers are aware of the
: effort required to even work half of that. 

:     A couple nights ago, I chatted with a ham friend who attended the
: Gaithersburg MD Hamfest (which coincided w/ the contest). He was evidently
: eyewitness to the fact that there were many large signs at the Hamfest
: that all said something to the effect: PLEASE WORK K3U-NO-WHO ON 146.5 !
: So I guess it's all fine and well to use advertising to fabricate QSOs !
: Fine. Next thing this hamfester sees is another large sign on a tower
: with a vertical beam pointed in a strategic direction: the Sign indicates
: HEY EVERYONE - PLUG YOUR HT INTO OUR BEAM AND WORK K3U-NO-WHO ON 146.5
! 



I think that this breaks the sprit of the rules and even 
though it is not clear from the rules - I think that it
breaks the rules of the contest.
 
from the rules - QST Aug. 1994 pg. 100.

7) Miscellaneous:
(C) A transmitter used to contact one or more stations may
not be used subsequently under any other call sign during the 
contest period ( with the exception of family stations where 
more than one call sign is assigned to one location by the 
FCC/DOC); one operator may not give out contest QSOs using
more than on call sign from any one location.  The intent 
of this rule is to accommodate family mimbers who must
share a rig, not to manufacture artificial contacts. 



OK - so it says "transmitter" - and the people at the hamfest
only porvided an antenna.  So you could say that they were not
breaking the rules because everyone was using their own radio - well
maybe.  If you look at the last sentance of that paragraph 
it calls it - not a "transmitter" but a "rig".  I think that
the rule is broken by the fact that you are using the same
antenna, and you *are* manufacting qsos - that would not
occur without the antenna.  I would also bet that not everyone
used their own rig - after all when strolling through the hamfest
with my buds - I never have my own HT - I use other peoples radios.
I would bet the house that several contacts were made with one
HT hooked up to that beam.   I guess it is time to change the
rules to read as it does a bit further down in the misc. section.
 
(F) Multioperator stations....... Even then, a complete, diffrent
station must exist for each QSO made under these conditions. 
 
In looking at the claimed scores - I would say that there must 
have been a beam up for 440mhz as well - seems that they had
a bunch of QSOs on that band too.  And we all know that no
self respecting ham with an HT would be caught with less than
a dual-bander. 
 
I dont think this score should be allowed to stand
for a new record - if the above did occur.  Maybe this
group should even be DQed. 
 


-- 

George Fremin III
Austin, Texas C.K.U.                        
WB5VZL
512/416-0140
geoiii at bga.com