[VHFcontesting] VHF Contesting: Fixing the Grid Circling Problem

[Zack Widup]

On Fri, 5 Aug 2005, Radiosporting Fan wrote:

> > We're trying to fix a problem here that only a few
> > people are creating.
> 
> True, Zack...but (as is the case with so many of these
> sorts of things) the behavior of a few seem to consume
> the emotions of the many.  The choice that the radio
> sporting sponsorship community has to deal with is
> this: Shall the symptom (grid circling by pack rovers)
> be treated or will the root cause (grids as
> multipliers) be tackled?
> 

Some people might say that the root cause is the existence of the contest 
itself, just as it was the existence of the DXCC program that caused 
people like Don Miller and Romeo Stepanenko to misbehave, not the fact 
that there are countries in the world.  I don't see the grid squares as 
the cause so much as much as the personalities (competitive urge?) of the 
particular players. If the multipliers were states or ARRL sections, I 
have a feeling there would still be "corner circling" going on, albeit to 
a lesser extent in most parts of the country.  People in New England and 
some areas of California might be able to get higher scores with a little 
less driving than someone in Mississippi or Texas.

Most ops, in a spirit of good sportsmanship, wouldn't want to "bend the 
rules" to see what they could get out of them.

I think Tree's suggestion would handle it.

73, Zack W9SZ