Hello to all.....Steve may be onto something with these proposed rules.
CONCERNING RULE 1: I think that I would allow 20 contacts for both the
Limited Rover and Rover classes. I see no need to limit the "beginner"
class.
CONCERNING RULE 2: I am afraid this rule would be used to ban pack
roving(as opposed to grid circling).
DISCUSSION: Pack roving is NOT grid circling. The distinction is
important. Pack rovers drive together for the fun, comradeship, and
safety.....they work each other when they cross a grid line(which helps
their score), but they do not spend all their time driving in circles
working team members that are 100ft away.....but the big benefit of pack
roving is to the fixed stations. When a pack crosses into a new grid, a
fixed station can get the antenna(s) pointed correctly and work many
different calls and bands quickly. The fixed station is the main
beneficiary of this, although there is some value to the rovers too.
Grid circlers do not benefit anyone except themselves.
Grid circling destroys the incentive / desire of all the other rovers to
go out, drive 1000+ miles, spend a lot of money, and bust their
butt--because they know that they have no chance against the grid
circlers. We will never get new hams / new rovers to participate if
they know that the system is rigged against them. If grid circling
becomes pervasive, the normal rovers will disappear, because they will
know that they have no chance. THIS is the real danger. Without
rovers, VHF / UHF contesting will be very lonely indeed.
Here in the 5th Call District, all these issues were hashed out on the
reflectors over here(primarily NTMS and VHFSouth). There is no sympathy
for the grid circlers and their tactics. However, there is very strong
support for pack roving over here. It is fun for the rovers
themselves(thus helping to eliminate the boring factor) and it helps
everyone make contacts. I know this is a radical concept, but everyone
making contacts is what VHF contesting should be all about.
I have been assured by a well known VHFer that grid circling can be
detected from the logs very easily. The VUAC should have banned grid
circling completely--peroid, end of problem. But they did not--maybe
because the Head Grid Circler is a member of the VUAC!!!!. They tried
to dance around this issue and "improved" a mess into a really bad
mess. Now we / they will have to try to clean this up. RULE 3 should
be: Limited Rover and Rover class entries may not engage in grid
circling within their class or with any other class.
RULE 3 would eliminate the need for any contact limits on Rovers or
Limited Rovers. RULE 3 would stop grid circling(exept for Unlimiteds)
and would not affect pack roving. As in all these contests, the
decision of the judges will be final. If the judges see grid circling,
they can just disqualify the entry and publish in QST the reason for the
disqualification. Simple and fair to all.
73 Marshall K5QE
k4gun@comcast.net wrote:
>I think we may be making this a LOT more complicated than it needs to be. The
>4 point issue wouldn't be an issue were it not for the grid squaring. They
>couldn't possibly make enough contacts on the microwave bands if they were not
>with a group. I think two very minor additions to the rules would clear
>things up pretty quickly:
>
>1. Limited Rover limited to 10 contacts with any single other rover. Classic
>Rover limited to 20.
>
>2. Limited and Classic Rover shall not participate in group efforts intended
>to coordinate contacts over multiple grids with other rovers.
>
>Yes, I know that second one is a bit vague, but that's intentional. Its a
>catch-all to allow the ARRL to make determinations when somebody tries to
>wiggle through a loophole. There's more than one of those in the rules
>already. One more can only help.
>
>The first one might do the trick by itself. Without traveling together, I
>think its pretty hard to make more than those limits anyway. Having the
>current 100 contact limit is just ridiculous.
>
>
>Steve
>
>K4GUN/R
>
>
>
>
>
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