[CQ-Contest] RTTY Roundup is coming up soon!

[Richard Ferch]

First, thanks to Jeff and Ed for clarifying about off times at the
beginning and end of the contest.

Fine - but the statement about only counting the first two breaks of longer
than 30 minutes as off time has me really perplexed. Here is an admittedly
extreme contrived example: I start at the beginning of the contest. I make
one QSO and discover that there is a problem with my antenna. Unfortunately
it takes me 31 minutes to fix it, so whether I intended it or not, I am now
considered to have taken my first off time. I make one more QSO, have
another equipment failure, and take another unintended 31 minute break to
fix that (second off time credited). One more QSO, and yet another problem
- a family issue maybe, 65 minutes into the contest, having made three QSOs
so far and now having been considered to have taken my two permitted off
times (31 minutes each). This third break turns out to be much longer, and
I don't get back on the air until a full 24 hours after my third QSO. With
only 4 hours and 55 minutes left in the contest, I finally get back on the
air (for good this time) and manage to make a few hundred contacts.
However, because my first two off times have already been accounted for, my
24 hours of "operating time" is calculated to have ended a few minutes
before the end of the 24 hour break, and my entire last operating period is
considered to be after my allowed 24 hours of operating and disallowed.

Despite having operated for a grand total of only 6 hours (counting the
first two unintended breaks as operating time), I am only given credit for
my first three QSOs because of having supposedly exceeded the calculated 24
hours of operating time by the time I finally make my fourth QSO! Really?

I understand that the managers don't want entrants to be able to cherry
pick amongst their off times, and need an unambiguous way to decide when
the 24 hours of operating time has been reached, but insisting that the
first two off times be the only ones considered does not seem to me to be
the most appropriate way to do that. If the longest two breaks add up to
six hours or more, shouldn't that be good enough regardless of how many
other breaks there are and what order they occurred in? If the longest two
breaks add up to less than six hours, things can get slightly more
complicated, but it is not difficult to devise an iterative algorithm to
compute the end of the 24 hours of permitted operating time taking into
account the two longest-duration off times during that recalculated
operating period.

73,
Rich VE3KI


On Fri, Dec 30, 2016 at 4:52 AM, Ed Muns <ed at w0yk.com> wrote:

> Starting late or stopping early contributes to your 6 hours of off-time,
> but does not count toward your 2 breaks.  The two breaks are the first two
> periods at least 30 minutes long each between your first and last QSOs.
> Shorter breaks or breaks beyond the first two are counted as operating
> time.  QSOs made after your first 24 hours do not contribute to your score,
> but count for the other station if they are within their 24 hours.  Leave
> all QSOs in your log!
>
> 73,
> Ed W0YK
> On Dec 29, 2016 2:25 PM, Richard Ferch <ve3iay at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Pierre,
> >
> > You can take as many breaks as you want, but you can only count two of
> > those breaks towards your mandatory six hours of off-time. As long as you
> > have taken either one single off-time of at least six hours, or two
> chunks
> > of off-time that between them add up to at least six hours, you will meet
> > the off-time requirement and you can operate or not as you wish for the
> > rest of the contest.
> >
> > Each of these off times must be at least 30 minutes long - that's 30
> > consecutive clock minutes during which no contacts have been logged. The
> > Cabrillo file only gives the hours and minutes part of the time (no
> > seconds), so waiting exactly 30 minutes and no seconds will almost never
> be
> > enough. You need to start counting at the beginning of the next minute on
> > the clock after the last contact and wait until the full 30 minutes has
> > passed after that before logging the next contact. You can take shorter
> > breaks, of course, but those short breaks won't count towards the
> required
> > six hours.
> >
> > If you start late by half an hour or more, or stop half an hour or more
> > before the end of the contest, that can count as one of your two official
> > off times in order to meet the six hour requirement.
> >
> > 73,
> > Rich VE3KI
> >
> > VE3KTB wrote:
> >
> > I'm a bit perplexed by rule 2.2.  Does this mean that once I have stopped
> > operating twice that I'm done for the contest if I stop again?
> >
> > ...
> >
> > What happens if I start the contest some hours late?  Is that considered
> > one of the off periods?
> >
> > And, what would be the minimum time between contacts to count as
> off-time?
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>