[CQ-Contest] Circle Jerks

[Joe Subich, W4TV]

W6WRT writes: 

> Isn't the whole idea of a geographic area to include people 
> who actually come to the club meetings on a regular basis and 
> to exclude "ringers" who are club members in name only, 
> operating from far away just to help run up the score?

If that's the case re-establish an "in person" meeting requirement. 

FCG has a significant number of members in the Panhandle who 
regularly make a 400 plus mile round trip to attend in person 
meetings in Tampa, Orlando, etc.  Even though they attend in 
person meetings, they still can't participate with the club in 
any of the  ARRL contests and many of the CQ contests because 
a 175 mile radius circle simply will not accommodate the state 
of Florida from Homestead to Pensacola - even though at least 
a third of the 96,211 square miles of the circle are ocean.   

You can bet if the "circle" did not cover Boston to Albany 
the rules would have been changed years ago.  However, I do 
not know of another case (other than TCG which provided the 
impetus for the "one section" rule in ARRL contests) where 
there is a single contest club covering an entire state and 
the state is too long/wide to be completely circumscribed 
by a 175 mile circle.   

73, 

   ... Joe, W4TV