[CQ-Contest] ARRL DX Contest Multioperator Station Guidelines

[Randy Thompson]

Thanks for the background.  It explains a lot.  Especially the lack of seeking inputs from the broader contesting community in advance of the decision.  I find it particularly curious that the main impetus for this idea came from Europe and not from the core W/VE constituents of ARRL.

I get that things are different due to Covid.  However, it doesn't make sense to fundamentally change multi-op contest rules far away from the concept of a station to a group of stations sharing a callsign.  If this had been introduced as a *new* category, it would have made a lot more sense.  You would have accomplished your goals of providing a new outlet for ' team contesting' without creating an asterisk year where none of the results can count for records or even be comparable with other years.

Should we expect this rule to also infect (so to speak) all other ARRL contests that have a multi-op category?

Contesting will still be fun.  QSOs, scores, and entries will happen.  But, in one move, the nature of contesting dealing with the constraint of station building for multi-op has been altered.

Randy K5ZD


-----Original Message-----
From: CQ-Contest <cq-contest-bounces+k5zd=outlook.com at contesting.com> On Behalf Of Michael Ritz
Sent: Friday, October 23, 2020 2:47 PM
To: cq-contest <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] ARRL DX Contest Multioperator Station Guidelines

The request for this "COVID-19 one-year variance" for the ARRL sponsored contests originated from a group of EU contesters and through the Radiosport department at ARRL HQ. It then went on to the Board's Programs and Services Committee, which approved the temporary change in a meeting held this Wednesday. While noting that the CQ committee has not made any allowances for COVID in their test rules, the motion passed and here we are.  

The rationale: Not every club station in the world has the ability to operate with a bunch of remote operators, the guys in Maine aside!  This gives some of the EU club stations the chance to get on the air under their "normal" club callsign, despite the pandemic, and be part of a MM team. 

I am somewhat prejudiced here, which is why I supported it. I'm one of the believers that radiosport is best when it's done as part of a team effort, especially if you can get some new hams involved as part of the team. (You did read the article in the latest NCJ didn't you?) ;-) 

This is actually similar to what the ARRL did as an allowance for FD this year. There were hams that hated the idea of what we did then, and some that loved it. In any case, overall participation in that event was up over last year, despite the pandemic, and in my books that's a good thing. I'm sure there are critics over this decision also, but so be it. You run with whatever the contest rules are at a particular time, they are subject to change. 

If you want to run MM in the ARRL DX CW test with 15 ops crammed into a single room, have at it. Nothing is going to stop you from still doing that. If you have 15 ops all remoting in from homes all over the globe to a multi-band 5X5X5 stacked array located in Jonesport, Maine, you can still do that too. This provides a third option "for the time being". Whatever floats YOUR boat. 

"Who will enforce this rule?" You guys will. Will somebody figure out a way to game the system? Most likely. There's no big prize money here, and the vast majority of radiosport enthusiasts are honest people. Let's just get on the air, have fun, and get over this damn virus.    


73;
Mike
W7VO
ARRL Director, NW Division
Member, ARRL Programs and Services Committee (and contester too!)




> On 10/23/2020 9:44 AM Chuck Dietz <w5prchuck at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>  
> Yew...  I thought they meant the ops would REMOTE each position from their
> homes.
> 
> On Fri, Oct 23, 2020 at 11:26 AM Yuri <ve3dz at rigexpert.net> wrote:
> 
> > Oh yeah!
> > It's totally in the spirit of today.
> > If someone can't ride at 40 MPH, let's ban this speed for everybody!
> >
> > Yuri  VE3DZ
> >
> > On 10/22/2020 11:29 PM, ku8e wrote:
> > > I agree Randy. How in the world would you enforce this rule? If you want
> > to social distance just don't allow any multi-op's this year.JeffSent from
> > my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone
> > >
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