Good point Joe. and Good point Hank. Good point Craig.
I think one good side-effect of the 175 mile limit is it forces clubs
to recruit actively in their area, which is good for contesting.
But it's not fair if the fish just aren't in the local pond, because it
is a pond.
For domestic ARRL contests, how about just switch to a "geographic area"
rule
where every club gets to submit it's rationale for it's covering area.
The rationale would have to be based on land area, and approximate
population
density. (it could be licensed ham density). Or maybe that's too
confusing,
and just make it land area. A particular target area with 175 mile
circle could serve as the area clubs aim to match (in terms of land area
and ham density).
Since this is a gentlemen's sport, the rule relies partly on clubs
making a good faith
representation to the ARRL. It might be recommended that the
representation be
based on counting grids, for an approximation of land area.
This might prove to be a huge boost for currently smaller clubs, in terms of
being more competitive, and drawing more people into more active contesting.
i.e. it's not just that you choose grids, but everyone gets as close to
100% land area
as possible. It could lead to more interest.
For the existing larger clubs, it's likely to have little effect.
ARRL could also allow members to be "added in" from outlying areas if no
other affiliated club
center is within 175 miles of that member. Maybe put a max distance for
such members (350 miles?)
and a maximum of 5 such members for each club, to avoid clubs putting
too much energy
into strategizing around this as a way to win.
-kevin
ke6rad
Joe Subich, W4TV wrote:
> W6WRT writes:
>
>
>> Isn't the whole idea of a geographic area to include people
>> who actually come to the club meetings on a regular basis and
>> to exclude "ringers" who are club members in name only,
>> operating from far away just to help run up the score?
>>
>
> If that's the case re-establish an "in person" meeting requirement.
>
> FCG has a significant number of members in the Panhandle who
> regularly make a 400 plus mile round trip to attend in person
> meetings in Tampa, Orlando, etc. Even though they attend in
> person meetings, they still can't participate with the club in
> any of the ARRL contests and many of the CQ contests because
> a 175 mile radius circle simply will not accommodate the state
> of Florida from Homestead to Pensacola - even though at least
> a third of the 96,211 square miles of the circle are ocean.
>
> You can bet if the "circle" did not cover Boston to Albany
> the rules would have been changed years ago. However, I do
> not know of another case (other than TCG which provided the
> impetus for the "one section" rule in ARRL contests) where
> there is a single contest club covering an entire state and
> the state is too long/wide to be completely circumscribed
> by a 175 mile circle.
>
> 73,
>
> ... Joe, W4TV
>
>
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>
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