[CQ-Contest] Re: Stealth Rules Changes

[Kenneth Earl Harker]

Thus spoke Jim Stahl:
>  
> While checking out the ARRL Web Site, I for the first time stopped
> to read the new General Rules For ARRL Contests. (These are also
> printed in December 1997 QST, pages 100-104.)  I was mostly looking
> to see how they incorporated the changes in the Multi-Single (and
> Multi-2) 10 minute rule in the DX contest, but also checked out the
> rules for the upcoming VHF Sweepstakes.  Much to my surprise I
> discovered major changes in the new rules! 
>  
> The "General Rules for ARRL Contests on bands above 50 MHz (VHF)"
> include two changes which will have a major effect on my VHF
> operation.  The most recent VHF contest rules (for the September
> 1997 VHF QSO Party, printed on pages 101-102 of the August 1997
> QST) defines Single Operator as simply "One person performs all
> operating and logging functions."  The changes in the new rules
> prohibit spotting assistance (2.1.1) and permit only one
> transmitted signal at any given time (2.1.2).

    I noticed this, too.  I've tried to round up as many multi-operator
efforts as I've been able to for the club station, but previously it had
been my understanding that it was OK for a single-op to, for example, 
call CQ on 2M CW while you move someone up to 70cm SSB.  I guess this 
is a multi-operator-only option now.

> I use PacketCluster, although it is not of much value on VHF. Spots
> of 2's working 1's aren't of much use in Ohio. Even closer spots
> aren't worth much considering that antennas can turn faster that
> cluster spots propagate. Its only practical contest use is for
> seeing where Es spots are being reported and thereby deducing the
> location of sporadic E clouds.

     Well, VHF packet spots are another discussion entirely.  One thing that is
for certain, they are generaly a lot less useful for a VHF contest than,
say, ARRL DX.  What it seems to me is that there was an attempt to make the
VHF single operator class as similar as possible to the HF single operator
class.  But there's not enough VHF activity to warrant yet-another-single-op-
class like Single Op Assissted.

> For me the big effect is the one signal rule.  I routinely CQ on
> both 6 and 2, using a voice keyer on the two meter rig.  It digs up
> a lot of qsos for me, and makes the slow times (i.e. most of the
> contest) bearable.  Unlike HF, where congestion is a major problem,
> on VHF this makes more activity which benefits all involved.

    Well, yes and no.  In most of the country, there is not a tremendous 
congestion problem even in the June contest, and yet after each of the big
three contests, there's always someone on this list complaining about 
"kilowatt alley," wherever that is...  But, I generally concur.  I'd rather
not inadvertently step upon enthusiasm to put signals on the VHF+ bands.
But I guess we'll see over the next several contests how this plays out.

> The VHF rules also include a new rule, 1.2, that says "Individuals
> and stations are limited to one entry per contest".  Fortunately
> this is not in the HF version, as it would make illegal my (HF) SS
> Rover operations.  But what purpose does this serve on VHF?  Will
> something bad happen if I go to a friend's house and pass out a few
> qsos?  As worded, it also appears to prohibit participation from
> both one's home station and a separate multioperator effort.
> 
> There may be other effects lurking out there.  If multioperator in
> the HF Sweepstakes is classed as a multi-single, there is suddenly
> a 10 minute rule (six band changes/hour) for multiops.  As I read
> rule 8.4.1.3, take in one visiting operator from outside your
> club's 175 mile radius and your multiop score is not counted for
> the Club Competition.  Are there others?
>  
> I am amazed that rule changes of this magnitude have occurred with
> no notice that changes were under consideration, that no input was
> considered, and that changes were hidden in the fine print without
> any other notice.  Were these deliberate changes?  Or just the
> unintended consequences of sloppy editorial work done in an honest
> attempt to reduce space used in QST for the repetitive publication
> of rules which remain unchanged from contest to contest?

   I think the intent was to standardize the rules largely as they were,
so as not to have any subtle differences from contest to contest that 
were never intended but had maybe crept into the rules simply because 
there is a lot of repetition and repetition invites a certain amount of
"noise."  My guess is that this is mostly a case of "unintended
consequences," albeit not from sloppy editorial work, but rather 
from trying to resolve these differences.

> I suspect I will continue to operate the VHF contests in the same
> manner as I have in the past.  If someone decides to reclassify me
> out of single operator, so be it.  With WA8WZG and KE8FD in my
> section, I'll stand to win more awards that way.  

    Well, this does raise some questions for me, though.  Say that the U.T.
club station starts a contest and I'm the only one there.  I assume other
members will show up to help out and make us a multi-op, so I use the DX 
Cluster.  But no one else shows up.  I don't fit in Single Op because I
used the spotting cluster.  I don't _really_ fit in Multi-Op because there
weren't two or more operators.  And I wasn't QRP or portable or rover.
In the past, I'd enter as a single op, but now?  Multi-op I guess, with the 
"ghost operator" on my team being the cluster, is the closest fit.  What
is the general consesnus on this?

> Jim Stahl   K8MR
> 
> 
> ----------------------------
> Jim Stahl
> InterNet: k8mr at barf80.nshore.org
> Basic Amateur Radio Frequency, BARF-80 +1 (440) 237-8208
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-- 
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Kenneth E. Harker      "Vox Clamantis in Deserto"      kharker at cs.utexas.edu
University of Texas at Austin                  Amateur Radio Callsign: KM5FA
Department of the Computer Sciences         President, UT Amateur Radio Club
Taylor Hall TAY 2.124               Maintainer of the Linux Laptop Home Page
Austin, TX 78712-1188 USA            http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/
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