[CQ-Contest] Two callsign, two op, single station

[Art Boyars]

VE4XT says:

"So I don't say this to contradict anything Ron's saying, because he's right, there are contests which have rules prohibiting this practice.

"My question is why?

"Whose interests are protected by this prohibition?"

The intent is to prohibit "pass the mike" QSOs.  I believe that that language was actually part of the ARRL rules when they introduced the rule.  You could look it up.

Lest you think it's a non-problem, I was a Novice/Technician in my first "contest", Field Day 1961.  The club (not PVRC, but not to be named), had a big operation.  At the Cook Shack they had a VHFrig, something like a Gooney Box, so that everybody who came by could work the club's FD operation.

Another story.  Before the rules were tightened, in the DX Tests some of the Multi-op stations used to give a DX station a QSO from everybody at the Multi-op station.  It was called "QTL -- send me the list of all the operators at your station."  Sometimes it was done just to liven up a slow period, sometimes to help a friend.  One slow time, in a phone Test, two guys at a MM made a list of all the op's, plus a few others they knew were not otherwise active.  They picked a loud Carribean Contest Expedition, and did a combination pass-the-mike QTL -- the two guys at the MM alternately working their way down the list, as the rate soared to about 10 QSOs/minute.  At one point the DX op asked "Are they really all there?"  Somewhere along the line, the two op's at the MM started laughing, and another station actually squeezed in a QSO during the QTL.

Of course, I have no idea who the operators were, or who the DX was, or what MM was involved.  Besides, it was at least 25 years ago.

It sounds like it was fun, but I think we don't want it to be legal.

73, Art K3KU