[VHFcontesting] rules

[George Fremin III]

On Tue, Jan 29, 2008 at 08:47:19AM -0500, Ron Hooper wrote:

> Coming from both a HF and VHF contesting background as well, I agree with
> Marshall. The way I remember it, HF contesters were the primary reason the
> rule concerning the use of phone calls during the contest was created. Many
> HF contesters were calling buddies around the world on the phone to get
> multipliers. Somehow the rule got pushed into the VHF contest.

This might be true.
It is true that a major multi-multi went to PJ2 (as I recall) and 
had operators standing by on the switchboard to round up multipliers
on the various bands by calling them on the telephone.  

This makes the contest into who has the best phone book and the best
long distance plan.  It does not make it a better radio contest.

> The difference is that on any HF band you camp on with little regard to
> where the antenna is pointed and frequency, you can make contacts,

I feel that is a bit of a generalization - but I will concede that
it can seem that way at times.  But, it is not really true.  I got 
on in the 160 contest this weekend for a few hours.  Even with my 
poor antenna setup - my receive antennas are fairly directional
and I must change directions all the time with them in order to
make sure I do not miss any contacts.  This is not really any different 
than I do in a VHF contest.


> On UHF
> and up, the antenna direction, time of operation and frequency is very
> important to make a single contact.

True. So you can move them from the low bands - like most of us do now.

> To me, this seems to play down the use
> of higher frequencies during a contest which is something that needs to be
> promoted.

How does calling guys on the telephone make them use the high bands more?
Would it not be better for them to get on the radio and call CQ and tune
the various bands and work guys that way - wouldn't it be better for 
the health of the hobby to have people using their radios?

> The rover guys seem to be affected by this rule more since many are only in
> a grid for a short time.

I have been a rover - and I never ever felt that I needed to have 
a telephone to help me make contacts.  I called CQ - I worked a lot 
of guys. 

I have worked rovers - I have never called them on the telephone.

Sure it would be easier to call them on the phone - I am sure I 
would have a few more mults in some contests as a result - but 
just because the physics make it possible to make a contact does
not mean I am entitled to log every contact just because I know 
that the equipment will allow it.  

Maybe the difference in prospective is that I would like to have 
a contest that rewards operating skill as well as station building
skill.  

> The use of cell phones by the rovers will continue
> to happen regardless of the rules,

Stations that are using telephones to arrange contacts during the
contest are cheating. I know there is at least one multiop in my 
state that does this - and it is wrong.  It really is too bad because
I am sure his scores would not be impacted much by following the rules.

It does insure that I will always look upon his band breakdowns
with less awe.

> I see the map idea to track rovers as a way to help eliminate
> some of the buddy contacts and make things happen more random.

Maybe - although I have heard from one person that thought that 
the APRS data seemed to cause the rover to not call CQ as much
since the station(s) he was working could watch his progress 
and knew where where was so they only had to call him on the 
frequency down the band when the APRS showed he was in a new grid.

It might be a great boon to VHF contesting - I think it is too
early to tell.  

> The next thing you guys will be discussing is eliminating the use of
> computers to log the contact and insisting on going back to paper logs.

That is just a silly statement.  

I would do fine with paper logs. But the benefits of computer 
logging out weigh the benefits of logging on paper.

-- 
George Fremin III - K5TR
geoiii at kkn.net
http://www.kkn.net/~k5tr