Gang,
I usually remain silent on contesting discussions on open forums on the
Internet but this current topic is close to my heart. I am currently and
have been for the past two years the chairman of the ARRL Contest Advisory
Committee (CAC). This committee is the principle group of subject matter
experts that provides advice to the ARRL Membership Services Committee (MSC)
on matters related to ARRL-sponsored contests. Over the last year or so, the
CAC was tasked by the MSC to study the revamping of the Club Competition
rules for ARRL contests. As a result of that study, over a dozen changes
were made to the ARRL general contest rules that enhance club (and personal)
competition and relaxes outdated and unnecessary constraints to club
participation. The MSC responded to just about every recommendation put
forward by the committee. This process seems to be working well. The CAC is
currently awaiting tasking from the MSC on the very issue of reviewing and
potentially revising all ARRL VHF/UHF contest rules. The desire is to
address the falling levels of participation in the ARRL contests. This
discussion topic is a growing issue among league members and deserves some
creative effort is needed from the MSC with help from the CAC.
I was recently asked by the new chairman of the MSC (W6XD) how to get the
CAC (a predominantly HF group) to provide the appropriate on VHF contest
issues. As most of you know, operating tactics, propagation factors and
station designs are vastly different on VHF contests and it takes a savvy
VHF operator to understand what makes things fun in a VHF contest. I
personally lived through the agony of the Rover Scoring rule change in VHF
contests as a member of the CAC a few years back. My personal feelings are
that neither the MSC or the CAC at that time had the appropriate sense of
the value of motivating the rover to rove in a VHF contest and some of the
fun was lost and some of the spirit to participate in VHF contests was
dissipated as a result of that rule change. The League does appreciate the
value of contesting to its members and to the hobby in general and would
gladly respond to reasonable revisions to contest rules if it would enhance
the participation in the events. So, it's time to get going on it.
Let me tell you how to make this happen.
1. Email your Division Director (email address is listed on the ARRL web
site and inside QST) and tell them that this issue is important to you and
needs to be addressed by the MSC as soon as possible. (The 15 Division
Directors run the run League...everyone in Newington does what these folks
tell them to do)
2. Contact your CAC representative and tell him/her that you would be glad
to provide inputs and or advice on VHF contesting issues (email address for
your division listed on ARRL website in Contest area).
3. Respond, if asked, to participate on an ad hoc group that will
undoubtedly be assembled to support the study of VHF contest rule revisions
in the near future.
My tenure as CAC chairman is about to lapse. This assignment is only for two
years and I am ready to do something (anything) else. However, I am about
the only experienced VHF contested on the committee and I may be asked to
hang around on the committee and participate on this project. My hope is
that the MSC moves out soon with the project.
Thanks for reading this.
Ned Stearns
AA7A
SW Division CAC
Chairman CAC
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