[VHFcontesting] Where to find contest rules, rovers, and TM-255a

[jcplatt1 at mmm.com]

Towards Joe's question as to where to find contest rules, they can be found
on the ARRL's website at http://www.arrl.org/ .   Once there, toward the
top left click on "Operating Activities", "Contests", "Rules".     Once you
are to this page, note at the top the links for "General Rules" and "VHF
Rules".   For all ARRL contests, including HF as well as VHF, there are
three levels of rules :  General Rules, VHF Rules, and Contest Specific
Rules (ex: January VHF).   One advantage of this rule structure is that
rules that are common throughout all the contests do not have to be
repeated over and over again in the contest specific rules.   One
disadvantage of this structure is that someone may read only the contest
specific rules and think that's all there is.    Anyway, that is where you
will find them .... they are not hidden nor do you need a secret handshake
to access them.

As has been pointed out, from time to time there is some spirited (ie,
good) discussion about the interpretation of these rules .... our ARRL
Contest Manager, Sean, KX9X, gets the final word.   My experience is that
our past and present Contest Managers have been very accessible and quick
to respond to any questions that are asked of them.   Sean's email is
kx9x at arrl.org and sometimes a simple email to him is better than 100 emails
on a reflector.   They are there to help us so we should use them.

Onto topic # 2.   To help address the unlimited rover scoring question, as
the Dakota VUAC rep., I can say that based upon internal discussion within
your VUAC and with our ARRL Liaison, that this was a translation error that
will be corrected.   Unlimited rover scores do not count in club scoring.
I defer to KX9X, but this is my understanding .... the rules on the ARRL
website will get updated to reflect this.

Topic # 3.   I use a TM-255a as an IF rig on 5.7 and 10 GHz.   One of the
problems that I am having is that it has low output power on SSB.   For
example, using CW or FM modes, if I set its 2m output power to 2 watts,
when I whistle into the mic on SSB I also get 2 watts, but when I speak my
SSB voice peaks are way way down, like about 300mW or so.  Even shouting
into the mic does not bring the power level up, but a pure tone whistle
does.   I did change the microphone - same results.   I also played around
with the software controls for the mic drive without any results.   Its
like the audio circuit AGC is to aggressive.   Has anyone else seen this on
their TM-255 and/or have any suggestions ?   When I use it on 5.7 and 10
GHz, the result is that I get full output power on CW/FM, but reports of
weak signals on SSB.

73, Jon
W0ZQ