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

[Ev Tupis]

 The ARRL's Paul Bourque has clarified this statement in the rules.  I have recopied his email that was posted to the VHFContesting email group.
I commend the Packrats for their dedication to the sport.  I likewise have upgraded my LASERs, however I will lose no sleep if I log contacts on any band with another rover that are less than 5km away.
Sincerely,Ev, W2EV

From:pbourque at gmail.comTo:Scott ArmstrongCc:Ev Tupis,vhfcontesting at contesting.comWed, Jan 10 at 6:09 PMThe key word here is SHOULD. 
"All equipment SHOULD be capable of communications at a range of at least 5 km." What we're essentially trying to prevent is having stations work each other from across the parking lot using 500 mw exciters or radios connected to dummy loads, and essentially fabricating contacts. If you happen to work a close by station with radios that are capable of longer range communications, have at it.

As was mentioned, we cannot determine actual distances from 4 digit grid squares. Hence the word SHOULD. If you happen to make contact with a neighboring station down the street who's also in the contest, or even make a random contact with a station down the street, those would be valid.
73,-Paul Bourque ARRL Contest Program Manager.

    On Thursday, May 30, 2024 at 11:59:47 AM EDT, PHIL MIGUELEZ via VHFcontesting <vhfcontesting at contesting.com> wrote:  
 
 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


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