[VHFcontesting] Re: VHFcontesting Digest, Vol 14, Issue 31

[Stanka1ze at aol.com]

Good Evening to all,

    Tree makes some excellent points! I am the FATHER of the grid circling 
discussion. I saw the loop hole in the scoring when time began for rovers. 
Because you started adding multipliers over again when operating from a new grid, 
Rovers were able to get scores that seemed out of whack compared to the effort 
expended. An example might be, 1 operator putting in a big effort might get 
200k, 5 operators in a multi might get 1meg, so it seemed unfair to club 
competition that 1 Rover in 1 grid corner in 1 afternoon working 1 other station 
could score 200k! I called the league and told them this seemed unfair to club 
competition. They thought it would never be a problem and left it alone. Even if 
no one was circling all Rover scores were too large compared to the entry 
classes. I decided to prove by example that this was ridiculous. A father and son 
team and my son and I set out to prove a point. 4 operators, 2 vehicles and 1 
contest weekend equaled 5meg points. So much for club competition! All done 
well within 175 miles of the club center and we finished by 3pm on Sunday. The 
score was plenty ridiculous and we decided not to continue to the next grid 
intersection.... 

    I am not in favor of going back to the old scoring rules. It created 
inflated scores then and will do so again if we return. I don't like the idea of 
having someone judge my score based some soft language that does not condone 
circling. Unless we say YOU CAN'T DO IT I have no problem with those who want to 
do it. An idea to make it less attractive might be to not be to require 15min 
of off time between contacts when changing grids. This wouldn't have much 
impact on most Rovers, but would really slow down the circlers. 1 intersection 
with 2 Rovers requires 16 grid changes. 16 X 15min = 4hours of wasted time. I 
thing this would douse the flames on anyone wanting to circle. There would be no 
need to judge your motives or whether you operated within the spirit of the 
rules, we would just check the time off when changing grids. All rovers would 
still be able to score their logs like every other category. Their scores would 
still be on a same effort level as the categories and SHOULD BE ALLOWED in 
CLUB COMPETITION!

Thank you, Stan KA1ZE