[CQ-Contest] NAQP CW - Rules Changes Needed

[Michael Adams]

My $0.02 worth, for what little it's worth:

I enjoy playing assisted.  I have a little pistol station comprised of wires in trees and barefoot power, and I play to have fun.  For me, rate=fun and getting those one or two last multipliers = fun.   Within that context, accepting spots helps maximize my fun.

When I was on the air this weekend, I was doing so to relax from a bad week.   I wasn't too concerned about the rules or what category I was going to fall in; I just wanted to get on the air and lose myself in the flow of making contacts as best I can with my little station.   I had actually forgotten about the NAQP's rules on assistance and the M/2 band-changes until raised here.  I decided to play a few minutes before contest-start; I didn't have much time to check the rules beforehand, and other commitments have kept me away from NAQPs in the past few years.

I respect the desire to keep the traditional feel of the NAQP, and I'm OK with contest organizers nudging would-be "serious contenders" towards certain operating styles.   I just ask that it be simple for casual entrants to disclose their power levels and use of assistance, rather than having to remember how class definitions vary from one week to the next.  (This request is mostly met by log-submission bots these days.)

While I accept and am used to assistance being shunned by some contesters... the idea of assisted operators being limited on band changes, is more annoying to me.  I had forgotten about that element in my efforts this weekend, but I trust that the contest organizers will interpret my log correctly according to the rules, and those who were competing (as opposed to "just playing" as I was) will not be penalized for forgetting/not caring about that element.

Having to worry about how band-change rules might impact my goal of "maximum fun" is annoying.  I get why it makes sense in certain forms of multi-op contesting, but really, when I'm contesting with my two radios, my headset, and my packet spots, I just want to focus on making lots of contacts, and not much else.  I've declined submitting logs for, or outright avoided contests where the rules seemed to impede my efforts to have fun.

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Michael Adams | mda at n1en.org