[VHFcontesting] "Handing Out" radio rules/ethics

[Duane - N9DG]

> On 6/24/09 1:10 PM, Les Rayburn
> wrote:
> > After the contest, I started thinking about the
> experience. It
> > occurred to me that I had a perfectly good Kenwood
> TH-F6A in the
> > truck that puts out five watts on 2, 440, and 222.
> Would it have been
> > legal and/or ethical to simply "hand" them the radio
> and invite them
> > to participate in the contest by working me on the
> spot?

Setting aside all of the ethics issues for a moment, I see a another rather serious flaw to the idea. Basically by handing someone an HT just to make some super short range "VHF Contest Q's" they will *not* be learning what the majority of VHF contesting really is. Nor does the practice have much chance of exposing potential VHF contest ops to the excitement and thrill of working someone on VHF+ hundreds of miles away. As such I seriously doubt any "chance op" making an accross the parking lot VHF contest Q like that will likely catch the bug from the "excitement" of having done so...

A far better idea would be for the contest sponsors to allow those "drop by ops" to grab the mike/key of the rover's station and make a few Q's and to let them do so without forcing a category change for the rover op. 

Duane
N9DG