[CQ-Contest] WPX on and off times

[Bill Coleman AA4LR]

On 6/16/99 14:49, Dick Green at dick.green at valley.net wrote:

>Okay, Okay, my speculation: The contest starts and ends at the published
>times, not when you start and end it.

Agreed.

>If you start at 0030Z Saturday and end
>at 2330Z Sunday, the first and last 30-minute periods count as operating
>time.

I don't get this. This assumes that the time before and the time after 
the contest also count as operating time. What kind of sense does that 
make?

A simpler interpretation is that all time outside of the contest is 
non-operating time. This means starting 0030z saturday includes an 
infinitely long off-time before the contest started. Similarly, times 
after 2330z include non-opearting time after the contest -- another 
infinitely long off-time.

>In this example, if you take only 11 hours of 60-minute or longer
>offtime, you will have illegally worked 37 hours of the contest.

That's a silly interpretation. Total operating time is 36 hours.

The important element here is that there been at least 60 minutes between 
contest contacts in order to count the period between as off-time. If 
there are no contest contacts either before or after, how can the period 
be limited to less than 60 minutes?

(We'll ignore for the moment stipulations about listening time being 
operating time)



Bill Coleman, AA4LR, PP-ASEL        Mail: aa4lr at radio.org
Quote: "Not within a thousand years will man ever fly!"
            -- Wilbur Wright, 1901


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