Thus spoke tgstewart@pepco.com:
>
> I dont think those are new rules. As a single operator entry in any
> contest (for quite some time now due to past abuses), you have not been
> allowed to transmit more than one signal at a time. That doesnt prohibit
This has been true for _HF_ contests for a long time, but if you read the
rules for this past September VHF QSO Part (August QST, p. 101), there is
no such restriction on _any_ of the operator classes. You are restricted to
no more than one signal at any one time on a particular band - but there's
no restriction from what I see prohibiting simultaneous TX on multiple bands.
> you from using more than one radio...it just means you must take turns
> TXing...you cant simulcast at all. Otherwise the obvious thing to do would
> be to transmit CQ's on ALL bands when th ings got slow. If you get caught,
> you will be DQ'ed.
This may be what people want for the single-operator class, and that's
what the new revision of the rules say, but I don't think that's what the _old_
version of the rules said.
> The general rules are not usually published in QST in whole because of
> limited space. However, they've been in existence for quite some time.
Really? I've been getting QST for a year and a half and I'd never seen
or heard of any "general rules" before this December issue. The new rules
for the January VHF Sweepstakes now reference (section 8) the general rules,
but I see no such reference in the 1997 September contest rules. There is a
reference to the disqualification rules (now incorporated into the general
rules), but those only deal with logging.
I always thought that the rules for the VHF contests were exclusively
what was published in QST and the disqualification rules pointed to. Since
none of those old rules seemed to prohibit single ops from having multiple TX
sigs at a time, and didn't reference any other rules that did, I think the new
rules are a change.
> The one thing I wasnt aware of was the packet for VHF single op's. It
> seems like it 's always been just about anything goes...HF, cellular
> phones, packet, pagers, etc. I know for a fact that packet is allowed for
> multi's and that you can run it simultaneously with the contest radio on
> the same band. In other words, it's not considered a transmitter for the
> contest so you can have packet and the contest radio transmitting at the
> same time on a band.
Yes, it appears multi-ops are not restricted from using packet in VHF+
contests. And yes, the new general rules explicitly prohibit the use of
"...non-Amateur Radio means of communication (for example, Internet or
telephone) to solicit a contact (or contacts) during the contest period...."
(3.9) I guess this means you need to make all your EME and meteor skeds
before the contest or coordinate on 3.818 or something.
--
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Kenneth E. Harker "Vox Clamantis in Deserto" kharker@cs.utexas.edu
University of Texas at Austin Amateur Radio Callsign: KM5FA
Department of the Computer Sciences President, UT Amateur Radio Club
Taylor Hall TAY 2.124 Maintainer of the Linux Laptop Home Page
Austin, TX 78712-1188 USA http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/
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