[VHFcontesting] Constructive suggestions for VHF/UHF Contest rules changes

[Jimk8mr at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/29/2008 10:25:14 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
JamesDuffey at comcast.net writes:

These  are my thoughts. They have focused on increasing activity, not   
leveling the playing field. Others? - Duffey
 
 
As gagging as most of this discussion has been, I will use this opening  to 
mention one rover issue of concern in the ARRL contests:
 
 
2.3.6.     <snip>...    Rovers  submitting a score for inclusion in a club 
competition must also include a  secondary summary sheet indicating the portion 
of the score that counts for the  club score if any of the QSOs submitted take 
place outside of their club's  territory.  
I don't know if this is really observed.  It is necessarily verifiable  from 
log information.  Where in a particular grid square are you when you  make a 
qso? On which side of a club boundary line?  Only an honor system  will work. 
If the rule is adhered to, it discourages a lot of potential locations.   In 
my case, as a member of the Mad River Radio Club which is centered in  
northwest Ohio, I can go only about 50 miles further east before I'm out of the  club 
territory.  Should I bother to go to FN01 or FM09 or EN92 if  those qsos 
won't count toward a club total? Do I want to bother with the  paperwork to figure 
out two separate scores? 
Likewise, do rovers from the Potomac Valley Radio Club make a point to stop  
somewhere in FM09, and not head further west to EM99 or EM88?  It sure  would 
be nice for us here in northeast Ohio to have some activity out in the  
western Alleghenies, but if they have to account for a club boundary, I can  imagine 
there is not much incentive to venture out this way. 
OK, the rule has a basis with fixed stations.  A fixed station is either  
inside a club circle, or it isn't. That is simple.  But a rover can readily  be 
both. 
So let rovers go wherever they want, generate as much activity as they can,  
and count it all for a club total. Don't make them divide up logs into 
eligible  and non-eligible (for club competition) qsos or multipliers.  
73  -   Jim  K8MR        in EN91



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