[SCCC] New Article on Website

[Marty Woll]

Hi. All.

The posting of my article so close to the ARRL Phone DX Contest weekend was
a coincidence that may have suggested to some that putting Techs in the
chair during a DX contest is OK.  It is not OK, of course, due to the
third-party restrictions in Part 97, unless the Tech is operating between
28.300 and 28.500 MHz and is running 200 Watts or less.  That said, there
are what some refer to as "paper Extras" who have passed all the tests but
have little to no HF experience.  Any of those you can entice into taking
part in a DX Contest multi-op may take any band in a multi-op, although
supervision and mentoring may still be appropriate.  The same is true for
HF-inexperienced Generals, subject to their observing the applicable
sub-band limits.

Domestic contests and particularly VHF / UHF contests are well suited to
bringing in Technician-class operators.  They can get a taste of weak-signal
work and get practice tuning in SSB signals.  Even on FM, the mode to which
they may be most accustomed, the faster pace and copying / logging practice
will benefit their skill development.

As for ARRL's General Contest Rule 3.1, I do not believe it is inconsistent
with or any stricter than the underlying FCC rules.  Just like at a Field
Day GOTA station, a control operator mentoring a newbie at a contest station
is the "operator" referred to in Rule 3.1.  As I'm sure most of you know,
the individual being mentored, whether a Tech or even unlicensed, may tune
the radio, activate the PTT and transmit  as long as the control operator is
present and no disallowed international third-party communication is
occurring.  So you can, in full compliance with the ARRL and FCC rules, have
a Tech on 20m phone in, say, Section Sweepstakes.  You just can't have the
control operator take off to pick up lunch or go operate another band while
leaving the transmitter enabled..

73,

Marty N6VI

   

-----Original Message-----
From: SCCC [mailto:sccc-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Dan Violette
Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2014 6:40 PM
Cc: sccc at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [SCCC] New Article on Website

SCCC Members/Followers,

This brings up a sore subject to me that comes back every 5 or so years.
The ARRL contests have a general rule:

3.1.All operators must observe the limitations of their operator licenses
and station licenses at all times.

We wanted to sit (as control op) with some new hams during the ARRL SSB (as
Multi-Op at our club station) one year back in about 1989/90 and this rule
got pointed out by one of our operators who actually read the rules
carefully (good thing to do and everyone should do that).  I could not
believe it but we ended up not having the new hams operate (may have even
skipped the effort as a multi-op). 

I petitioned the ARRL/CAC, got the rule removed for I think one year, maybe
2 (would have been in the 1990-93 period ).  When we were ready to try again
we looked at the latest rules and it was back.  I argued again without avail
this time.  I did get a reply (e-mail and letter in those days) from John
Hennessee, KJ4KB, Regulatory Specialist for ARRL.  Copy is around the
internet (since nothing ever disappears), but there is a good third party
discussion on K1TTT that has it copied (link below or Google search John and
my name/callsign together also).  I could probably resurrect my original
arguments but let's just say, basically I said this rule exceeds the FCC
rules and is not necessary and just limits encouraging contesting to young
hams.  Got a little push-back on the "exceeds FCC rules" part because of
third party hence the ARRL ruling letter saying I was right.  Remember this
started before Tech had 10M SSB and there were still new Novices and code
was required so many were General class that were only limited in their code
(most are now Extras with the code requirement gone).

Some letters/notes: http://www.k1ttt.net/technote/legalops.html

Dan Violette, KI6X

OK, done for 5 years unless someone wants to work with the CAC again.  I
could not even get lower level license ops to operate as W1AW/6 with someone
sitting there helping so multi-op contesting with them does not stand a
chance at our club these days.