[CQ-Contest] SS Rules

[Richard Ferch]

On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 at 18:23:53 -0000. N7MAL said:

>  ... When the op sent the check it was 30+ years off...
<snip>
>My question is: Are the rules really rules or just guidelines we can all 
>bend and twist to suit our individual purposes?

Look at it this way: How could the particular check they chose to send 
possibly make any difference to anyone? As long as what they logged is the 
same as what they sent, whose score could possibly be affected? It's not as 
if the ARRL gives out awards for the highest score with a check of 99, 
highest score with a check of 98, and so on.

This is rather like the name in the exchange for the NAQP and Sprint. The 
rules say quite clearly "operator name" or "your name", but lots of 
stations change names from one running to the next - remember all the 
"Chads" from Florida four years ago? No-one gets upset at that, nor should 
they, because there are no injured parties.

Now if they were in AZ but sent their section as NV or WY, that would be a 
serious violation deserving a serious penalty, because it would affect 
other people's scores, not to mention affecting the competition within both 
sections. But if they didn't do anything that would affect anyone else one 
way or the other, where's the problem?

Besides, maybe the check used was the operator's, not the station's. The 
rules say "the year you were first licensed" - is "you" supposed to be the 
control operator or the station licensee? That's not clear, but it doesn't 
need to be because it doesn't matter.

73,
Rich VE3IAY