As you now know I don't endorse self spotting or requesting another station
to spot you, but I also know that rules must be specified clearly, and this
is not the case here, the rule that you mentions and does not allow spotting
your own station or requesting another station to spot you is rule 3.14 of
the General Rules for All ARRL Contests that says:
"3.14. In contests where spotting nets are permissible, spotting your own
station or requesting another station to spot you is not permitted."
As I read this rules I can clearly see that this rule applies to contests
were spotting nets are permitted, and not to categories were spotting nets
are permitted, in none of the ARRL contest the use of spotting nets is
permitted to every one entering (all categories), MM, MS and SOAS are
special categories that allow the use of spotting assistance, for SOAS
(Single Operator Assisted) the use of spotting assistance is expressly
permitted by the HF General rule 2.2.1 of the General Rules for ARRL
Contests on bands below 30 MHz (HF):
"2.2.1.Use of spotting assistance or nets (operating arrangements involving
other individuals, DX-alerting nets, packet, etc) not physically located at
the station is permitted."
As I read this rule is clear to me that a SOAS entry is allowed to request
spots, when he ask some one to spot him, he is in fact making arrangements
with another individual not physically located at his station to spot him
and this expressly allowed in rule 2.2.1, further more, the words
"......DX-alerting nets, packet, etc" allow any type of assistance and the
key word here is "etc" which impose no limitation on the assistance that he
may get or request.
To prohibit SOAS the request for spots a rule must be written to the fact, a
special rule for a special category.
For SO entries the history is different, rule 2.1.1 expressly prohibit ant
type of assistance.
2.1.1.Use of spotting assistance or nets (operating arrangements involving
other individuals, DX-alerting nets, packet, Internet, etc) is not
permitted.
This rules even indicates that the use of Internet is not permitted,
something that is not prohibited in rule 2.2.1, so in essence a SOAS may
join an Internet forum/chat and request a QSO, spotting or any other
assistance he my require.
Disqualification does not applies to SOAS requesting spots and/or
assistance.
I can elaborate further but I will live it here.
73/DX Jose M. Valdes R. (Joe) YV5LIX
eQSL.cc Advisory Board Member
QSL manager EA7FTR
SYSOP YV5LIX DX Cluster
telnet://yv5lix.org.ve:7300
VHF Packed: 145.430 using C YV5LIX
http://www.yv5lix.org.ve
The site has an online log search.
-----Original Message-----
From: Kenneth E. Harker [mailto:kenharker@kenharker.com]
Sent: Friday, March 10, 2006 16:39
To: Jose Valdes
Cc: cq-contest@contesting.com
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Response to KA1LMR's Posting About Spotting
On Fri, Mar 10, 2006 at 12:59:08PM -0000, Jose Valdes wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> It was written "I notice alot of stations ask the statsions they work
> to spot them...."
>
> I like to make clear that in the above scenario the station asking to
> be spotted should be immediately placed in the Single Operator
> Assisted category.
Actually, no. Asking another station to spot you is prohibited to all
contest stations in ARRL contests. See the discussion at:
(http://www.arrl.org/contests/hf-faq.html#spotting) Doing so should result
in disqualification, not just re-classification. It's similarly prohibited
in CQ contests, and just about any other major contest worth operating.
Maybe I'm the rare case, but I can honestly say that I don't get asked by
other stations on the air to spot them. I've made tens of thousands of HF
phone contest QSOs, and the number of times another station has asked me to
spot them could be counted on one hand with fingers to spare. It's never
happened to me in a VHF contest. Does this happen more often on HF CW or HF
RTTY?
--
Kenneth E. Harker WM5R
kenharker@kenharker.com
http://www.kenharker.com/
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