[VHFcontesting] Mt. Airy VHF Radio Club decision on laser contacts in the upcoming June VHF contest

[PHIL MIGUELEZ]

Thecurrent rules for the ARRL Jan, Jun, and Sept VHF contests include a changethat all participating clubs should take notice of. Starting this year, theleague increased the minimum working distance requirement of portable equipmentfrom 1 km to 5 km. 
Theofficial contest rules are available on the ARRL website. The specific new rulechange is copied below:

“STTN.6.All equipment should be capable of communications at a range of at least 5 km.Contacts made between non-fixed stations, for example portable and/or roverstations, should be made over a distance of at least 5 km.”

Whilethe vast majority of portable RF equipment should easily meet the new 5 kmrequirement, the wide variety of laser designs is more suspect. The Mt. AiryVHF Radio Club has built and tested a number of portable rover stations andlaser communicators over the years. Our testing found that the current laserdesigns surpassed the prior 1 km distance requirement, and under goodconditions could work up to 3 km, but this falls short of the new 5 km rule.
ThePack Rats will begin work on new designs to improve the range of our roverlasers but after careful consideration of the current state of the existinglaser equipment, we have decided to suspend laser operation for W3CCX in theupcoming June VHF contest.
Mt.Airy VHF Radio Club - June Contest Committee