[CQ-Contest] Working Split In A Contest Is Verboten!

[Alan M. Eshleman]

Agree.  The incident in question here is 4W/K1YC (9V1YC) on, if I recall correctly, 15 M.  9V1YC is a great op.  He chose a spot way up the band and a very narrow (1 KHz) split.  He still had the problem of extracting calls from the pileup and the callers had a much easier time knowing when he had come back to him.  I certainly don't recommend this as standard contest procedure, but in this case it worked.

With respect to K9YC: congratulations to Jim for a fabulous QRP effort in the contest.  I'll bet he finishes way up in the standings.

73,

Alan/K6SRZ  

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tree" <tree at kkn.net>
To: cq-contest at contesting.com
Sent: Monday, February 22, 2016 10:20:41 AM
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Working Split In A Contest Is Verboten!

I disagree with the idea that operating split during a contest is
Verboten.

Working split is something that is done to react to a specific set of
circumstances - and I don't see the difference between being in a contest
or not.

The set of circumstances is pretty intuitive.  If you have a pileup and
people you come back to are not hearing you because of the pileup.  One of
the things that helps enable this is propagation.

I have used split during a contest exactly twice.  You do need to be aware
of the impact it can have on QRM - and in both cases - I took steps to
mitigate it.

One of these came while operating from UA0C during the Friendship Radio
Games.  I was essentially a special event station and the European pileup
was having a hard time hearing me come back to them.   This really wasn't
what most people think of as a contest - but going split gave me an
advantage that eventually resulted in a gold medal.

The other time was at KL7RA on 10SSB during a CQ WW SSB contest - when we
had a marginal opening to Europe and a MASSIVE pileup.  I ended up on
something like 29.200 MHz - and ended up going split because the Europeans
could not hear me over those who had to call over and over.  I actually
ended up with two pileups - one up 5 and the other up 10.

The whole point is to maximize the QSO potential of any situation.  In a
contest - you should do whatever you can to maximize your QSOs. (that is
within the rules and regulations of a contest).  I don't see where going
split crosses any ethical boundaries - especially when done on part of the
band that is not very crowded.

Tree N6TR
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