[VHFcontesting] ARRL rules and no exit interviews

[Marshall Williams]

BRAVO Frank....a little disjointed(aren't we all), but well said.  The 
grid circling and pack roving is a problem and no fix is in sight. 

As everyone should know by now, I have been protesting the hijacking of 
the EME contest by the Anti-Assistance / CW Forever crowd.  With the new 
rule changes, the EME contest only has classes for the CW guys and the 
Anti-Assistance guys.  There is no place for those of us that want to 
operate Assisted.  My previous posts on this are on my web 
site(www.k5qe.com)...just click EME Assistance on the left. 

I will not be operating the ARRL EME contest this year, as there is no 
class for me now.  I will be on EME whenever I can find the time, but I 
will NOT operate  during the contest periods.  This will prohibit the 
Anti-Assistance operators from working me and then claiming that I was 
in the contest.  It will stop the Anti-Assistance ops from getting any 
points from me.  After all, I have been excluded from their contest, so 
they clearly don't need any help from me.  Essentially, all small 
stations have been excluded as well.

I also suggest that each and every operator that has been discriminated 
against by these new rules, write a letter to Sean (skutzo at arrl.org) 
explaining why you did not operate this time.  It is VERY important that 
you request that Sean forward your letter to the entire VUAC. 

The most charitable face that I can put on the rule change process is 
that the Anti-Assistance folks engaged in a propaganda campaign to 
convince the VUAC members that the current setup was "the will of the 
EME community".  The VUAC members that had no EME experience deferred to 
those on the committee who did and allowed these changes to be pushed 
through.  The new rules discriminate against the small stations...there 
is no denying this.  Although I am not a small station, the new rules 
force someone like me who likes to operate Assisted to either not 
participate or to participate using methods that I hate.  A great choice!! 

Again, being extremely charitable, one could say that the 
Anti-Assistance people did not understand what they were doing to the 
small stations.  They could say that it was an un-intended consequence.  
On the other hand, it could be that they knew exactly what they were 
doing.  One of the rabidly Anti-Assistance op actually said that if the 
small stations want to be in the EME contest, they need to build up 
their stations into a large station or just go away.  Real inclusive, 
that.  It has also been pointed out to me that now, the EME contest is 
the ONLY contest in the world where Multi-Multi contest stations cannot 
look at the packet spots, reflectors, and other such sources at any time 
during the contest.  They can't even LOOK!!!  The ONLY one.....

I believe that the logs submitted for this contest will be WAY down from 
previous years.  We shall see.  As I pointed out in a previous post, 
there were significantly more Assisted class entries than there were 
Non-Assisted class entries.  Apparently, the ARRL belives that throwing 
out over half of all the entries in the ARRL EME contest is the best way 
to promote activity....NOT!!!

As always, rational discussion is welcomed.  Flames and rants --------> 
bit bucket.

73 Marshall K5QE
www.k5qe.com


frank bechdoldt wrote:

>Jim said not to send in a blank log, write a letter to my reps.
>
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>Sorry I tried that, the PSC ignored the VUAC recommendations and my VUAC member that represents this area quit. I have written letters to these individuals for 5 years. Believe me my VUAC knew where I stood and tried to fix some of these issues.
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>The only thing that’s bringing back to roving is fixing the rules or someone beating my best score while not acting as part of a team convoy of rovers.  When this happens I will be back. Otherwise doing what I did achieves nothing when every rover in the country that beat me had a roving partner for all the free benefits you get from line of sight contacts at grid corners.
>
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>I hope those of you who stay home understand how this system discourages the completive non exclusive rover. This is the type of rover that gave the most benefit to the community as a whole by working everyone they can. 
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>The bottom line is that for VHF contests the VUAC has no authority and therefore the VUAC  system in place has no authority either.
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>The decisions are made by people we can not easily remove for making such decisions. 
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>It is not the VUAC that is hurting the contests. It’s the PSC.
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>There are 100s of people who do not compete or enter logs in this contest for various reasons. None of those reasons are ever brought forth to the ARRL to understand.
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>There is no exit interview.
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>There is no way to tell them why you are not participating. 
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>All of you guys who got shut out of the EME contest should take note and send an empty log to the contest branch or a letter stating why you didn’t not participate in the contest, but you were interested if things were adjusted.
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>If we do not change this system of rule making and governing our contests to one that is done on the open air the certificates are worth nothing.
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>This means opening the logs up for everyone to view as evidence of fair play and demonstration of fine operating skills.
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>I’m sorry that you think I am hurting the vhf contest community. It is not my goal.  I suppose every corrective surgery involves pain.  I realize all the home and portable stations are unaffected by the rover rules.  But what happened in the  EME rules demonstrates how the politics of a few people we do not elect listening to other people appointed by division leaders but given no authority to change anything causes allot of room for personal politics to rule the day.
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>Anyone of you at home will now have to make a major jump in cost gear acreage and skill to get in an EME contest. You may never have a plan to do EME but now the path for this has been narrowed in an undemocratic process.  It is the same process that I have experienced, wrote letters to and the like. Except I believe the VUAC tried and the ARRL failed.  
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>So if my section leader doesn’t listen, the ARRL doesn’t listen a blank log and a letter will have to do. I worked the most random contacts to people in my division ever in the history of roving without using a convoy approach to inflate my score.  However the best score is held by a group of Pac rovers that mainly worked each other.   I feel that what I did achieved more for the community as a whole. Unfortunately the vhf community is failing rovers like me in giving me a fair place to compete.  
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>Please don't imply I am hurting the comunity. I am trying to fix something I care about before I just give it up.  If the vhf comunity really thinks the traditional rovers should be rewarded by who can form the biggest convoy of gear filled vehicles working each other member of thier convoy for 98 percent of thier QSOs then I guess rovers like me will not be missed.
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>k3uhf
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