[VHFcontesting] Assistance in VHF Contesting...

[Marshall-K5QE]

Hello to all interested in VHF Contesting.....

The topic of "assistance" has come up several times on various 
reflectors in the past year or so.  Let's see what we have now:

THE CQ WW VHF CONTEST
CQ has defined three kinds of assistance:
         A)Passive Assistance--Passive Assistance means that a station 
is allowed to look at the Internet resources.  ALL stations are allowed 
to use Passive Assistance
         B)Active Assistance--Active Assistance means that you can post 
to the various Internet reflectors.  This is allowed for ALL stations 
that are calling CQ using digital meteor scatter or digital EME.  
Stations                 using this form of assistance can post their 
Call, Frequency, and Sequence ONLY.  No other posting is allowed.
         C)Interactive assistance--Interactive Assistance is using 
Internet resources to schedule contacts during the contest.  This form 
is NOT ALLOWED to any stations.

DISCUSSION OF THE CQ RULES:
The new CQ rules have removed the discrimination against the Single 
Operator stations.  It never made any sense to me at all that Multi 
Operator stations were free to look at the Internet resources, but 
Single Operator stations were not.  When I made a post concerning this 
discrimination, the ARRL apologists went into apoplexy.  One actually 
told me that, "Single Ops should not be able to do that stuff!"  I was 
astounded.  Where do these ideas come from??

The CQ WW VHF contest is far and away the best VHF contest that we 
have.  The new rules for Active Assistance allow digital MS and digital 
EME stations to "tell the world" where they are calling CQ.  This means 
that a lot more digital QSOs occur.  It really makes it a lot more fun 
and a lot more "rare" grids make it into the log.  The CQ rules do not 
allow SSB/CW stations to post themselves, so that is like the ARRL rules 
for HF and VHF contesting.

THE ARRL VHF CONTESTS
For this discussion, I want to ignore the EME contest.  The rules there 
are so screwy that they defy reason--and the history of the rules 
changes there is a very sordid affair.  So, excepting the EME contest, 
the ARRL contests do not permit any form of assistance.  When this topic 
came up in the past, there were a substantial number of folks that did 
NOT want any new classes in the contest.  NO NEW CLASSES was their cry.  
At first, I did not agree with this point of view, but later I came to 
see that adding an Assisted Class to VHF contesting was probably the 
wrong way to go.  It would further fragment the entries that we do have.

DISCUSSION OF THE ARRL RULES:
In HF contesting, the appears to be a never ending supply of stations to 
work.  You can point your beam just about anywhere and there will be 
stations to contact.  This is NOT true in VHF contesting.  In my area, 
for instance, there are only a relatively small number of stations that 
can be worked--even with a very big station.  Because of the "search 
light" nature of VHF beams, it is quite possible to miss stations that 
you could otherwise work, just because the two of you never got your 
beams pointed at each other at the same time.  So contacts that you 
SHOULD have made, were NOT made.  I don't know about you, but I want to 
make EVERY contact that it is possible for me to work.  The ARRL rules 
seem to be constructed to minimize the number of contacts that you can 
make, rather than maximizing them.  The Single Op stations are at a 
particular disadvantage, because of the discriminatory rules directed at 
them.

The Internet is a fact of everyday life....it is a fact of Amateur Radio 
and Amateur Radio contesting and it is not going away.  The HF 
contesters started the ball rolling with their Packet Spotting 
networks.  There was much howling and gnashing of teeth when that 
happened.  Finally, the HF world was forced to create Assisted Classes 
for their contests.  Now, we have packet spotting networks, APRS maps, 
QSO spotting maps by band and by region, reflectors for meteor scatter, 
EME and who knows what else.  These resources don't make any QSOs....you 
have to actually work the other station yourself, but they to help you 
locate stations that you might be able to work.  Unfortunately, there 
are still folks that strongly oppose using such "non-Amateur Radio" 
resources.

So, we do not have any Assisted Classes in the ARRL VHF contests and 
many do not want any new classes.  We can clean up most of the problems 
without adding any new classes if we adopt rules identical to the CQ WW 
VHF contest rules(or substantially similar rules).  Some will ask, 
"Well, why did the VUAC not accomplish this?"  The VUAC began with 
several successes--the new rover rules, the family station rule, and 
other useful changes.  Then the EME rules debacle occurred.  After that, 
the VUAC became a group that seemed to exist only to protect the status 
quo. Nothing useful got done.

Can we do anything to make the situation better??  YES, we can. However, 
the only way open to us now is to go through the Directors.  Each VHFer 
needs to send a letter to his/her Director(often) to let them know that 
the VHF contesting rules need work.  In that letter, you can outline the 
CQ rules and ask that we move in that direction.  Emphasize that the 
rules for HF contesting are not a good fit for what we do and that there 
is no reason why the VHF rules must track the HF rules.  Have face to 
face discussions with your Director on this topic whenever you can.  
Keep plugging at this and progress will be made.

As usual, diatribes, flames, hate mail, etc. will go directly to the bit 
bucket.  They will not pass GO and will not collect $200. Thoughtful 
replies are encouraged and appreciated....even if you don't agree.

73 Marshall K5QE

ASIDE:  There are various tactics, within the rules, that would 
ameliorate the worst of the ARRL's silly rules.  That should be a topic 
for further discussion.