[CQ-Contest] Check in SS

[James Cain]

As Bud Hippisley, W2RU, so eloquently said, if not in so many words, SS CW has many charms.

One of those charms is the check: The year the *operator* was first licensed. 

The SS rule says (and has always said):

4.4. Check (the last two digits of the year you were first licensed):

That's *you*, NOT the station. So, according to the rules, it always has been legal for a multi-op station to change Check as operators change. In fact, it's mandatory, per the rule.

I am not a lawyer, but to me, "you" means a person, not a station. Kind of like what the definition of "is" is. 

As for what name you use in the Sprints, well, what's in a name? (Shakespeare wrote that). It's whatever you want to be called and you can change it. But you can't change the year of your amateur radio birth, which is a fact. 

After 40-plus years of SS I have a lot of people's Checks memorized. I'm sure I'm not alone in that. 

Jim Cain, K1TN/9, CK 61