[SCCC] WPX Rule Change

[w6ph at aol.com]

I do not operate the WPX.  I prefer contests that have geographical multipliers.  So the rule change does not affect me.  I submit that assistance does not create very much of an advantage in WPX which is basically a run contest.  The winner is the one who gets the most answers to his CQ's. There is a lot of debate about assisted and unassisted being combined.  I see two types of contesters, participants and competitors.   The competitors are the ones who are trying to win a category.  They tend to prefer the unassisted operation but many also like the assisted category.  My personal opinion is that operating assisted has been more enjoyable for me.  I changed about three years ago from being a stalwart unassisted operator.  I opine that the competitors are split 50/50 on these categories. The participants are those that get on for a limited amount of time to have fun but are not going for a win.  I opine that the vast majority of them are using assistance.  I don't think they have a strong opinion on assisted versus unassisted. I do have a strong opinion that single operator single transmitter and single operator multiple transmitter (SO2R) should be separate categories similar to multi-one and multi-two or m/m   I know that I am in a very small minority. Eventually there will not be an unassisted category in contests.  It is just a matter of time.  The adjudication process to check for violations of unassistance is difficult and time consuming.  There are always those who violate this as evidenced by the disqualifications in CQ contests.  The ARRL contests have no adjudication process.  I generally believe that most contesters operate honestly but intuitively there are those who stretch the rules or are looking for loop holes to create advantage. I am only giving an opinion.  I am not proposing any changes. 73, Kurt W6PH