[CQ-Contest] Packet pile ups - do we need them?

[Jim Reisert AD1C]

I just want to follow up on a comment I made earlier this week:

 > At 07:09 AM 11/28/2000 -0500, n6tr at teleport.com wrote:
 >
> > Then, you see people spotting themsevles - which I believe is not
> > considered proper in a contest.  Maybe they use a different callsign,
> > but it is pretty obvious.  Of course - if you have a club member do
> > it for you instead, then it must be okay.
 >
 > It's prohibited by the CQWW rules, but it's OK in some other contests 
(i.e. ARRL).

That may have been true of ARRL contests some time ago, but there are new 
rules in place.  Thanks to Wayne N7NG for pointing me to them ( 
http://www.arrl.org/contests/announcements/rules-all.html ):

3.14. In contests where packet or spotting nets are allowed, spotting your 
own station or requesting another station to spot you is not permitted.

And Wayne follows up:

Yes, this is 'sort of' a change. Dan says that according to Bill Kennamer, 
it was an 'un-written rule' for a long time, but in fact, self spotting was 
not dis-allowed by the rules. It was only formalized this year. No problem, 
but it would be good to set the record straight. I am perfectly happy to 
have everyone know it is a new rule.

-----
back to AD1C:

A couple of years ago, W1AW (/9 I think) was spotting themselves during the 
IARU HF Championship.  I said something afterwards on the CQ-Contest 
reflector, and it was pointed out to me by one of the ops (KA9FOX maybe) 
that there was nothing in the rules AT THE TIME prohibiting this, and CQWW 
rules don't apply to ARRL contests.  This apparently stuck in my head, even 
after the rules were changed.

Bottom line:  for CQWW and all ARRL contests, if you are in a 
packet-assisted category (including multi-transmitter), then you can NOT 
use packet to solicit QSOs - this includes "self-spotting".

73 - Jim AD1C


--
Jim Reisert AD1C <jjreisert at alum.mit.edu>
http://www.ad1c.com


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