I am not sure I would want to see the actual diagram...something about
sausage being made :-)
The current rules have grown incrementally over the years with the
technology changing far faster than the verbiage. This is hardly unique
to the ARRL but the drawn out, multi-threaded process for rule changes
pretty much guarantees the rules will be well behind the needs of the
community. It's not a good idea to have the rules changing at every
shift in the wind either. A re-balancing of the process is sorely
needed and has been for a long time.
Definitions are quite important and there are few except those sprinkled
about here and there. Perhaps with the Centennial behind us, that would
be a good project - to collect, reorganize, and re-state the rules of
the world's largest radiosport program in a more understandable format.
There's no reason for three overlapping sets of rules for any contest -
it's an artifact of the paper era during which the League's processes
were designed.
> it seems to me that implementing these rules now will cause confusion
with what the Ad-Hoc committee is doing, recommending, or has done.
Perhaps, but as I observed in the first post, anything the ad-hoc
committee comes up with is at least a year away from implementation,
probably longer. With a more engaged Contest Branch Manager and no
competing year-long special events, there will be a higher
signal-to-noise ratio for the process, I'm sure.
73, Ward N0AX
On 1/2/2015 11:37 AM, James Duffey wrote:
Thanks Ward for the clarification. To me, at least, this points out what a convoluted path
ARRL contest rules changes and implementation take from inception to implementation. It is no
wonder people get a bit confused during the process, particularly if it is drawn out as how
this one has been. We have all seen the High School Civics posters on “How a Bill
becomes Law”. It would be nice to see something similar for how a rule becomes changed
or implemented in an ARRL contest.
I still have a big concern about the new rules as there is no definition of
assistance in the new rules. I suspect that the restriction in the ARRL General
rules:
• 3.14. In contests where spotting nets are permissible, spotting your
own station or requesting another station to spot you is not permitted.
is the only assistance guideline that applies. So all forms of assistance
appear to apply except for self spotting. It is clear that the ARRL General
Rules for ARRL Contests Above 50 MHz has not been updated to reflect assistance
in the January contest. That will cause some confusion.
Without any guidance, I suspect that most participants will assume that the most
liberal application of assistance applies. If left to one’s own judgement there
will be a lot of differing implementations, which will leave people competing in the
same class with different rules.
As you say, the timing of the rules changes could have been better. Not only is
the lead time short, it seems to me that implementing these rules now will
cause confusion with what the Ad-Hoc committee is doing, recommending, or has
done. - Duffey KK6MC
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