Hi Les
>After the contest, I started thinking about the experience. It occurred to
>me that I had a perfectly good Kenwood TH-F6A in the truck that puts out
>five watts on 2, 440, and 222. Would it have been legal and/or ethical to
>simply "hand" them the radio and invite them to participate in the contest
>by working me on the spot? Carrying that logic one step further, what if I
>carried a 900mhz Kenwood HT converted to ham frequencies, or one of those
>new Alinco HT's with 1.2ghz FM? Or even better a Kenwood VX-8R which has 6M,
>2M, 440, and 222.
It would seem to me that, like others have said, if the HT was used by only one
other operator, this would be fine. The rules are quite clear that a radio can
only be used by one operator. I think... There's nothing unethical about
loaning equipment to to other hams.
But consider the following. Someone at home hears you and gives you a call to
"give you a point", even though he's "not in the contest" and won't be sending
in a log. No problem there, right? But his buddy is in the shack too, and he
hands the mike to him to also give you a point. Happens all the time, but a
strict reading of the rules would seem to say this is not allowed. I think...
Unless you have been using the HT yourself in the contest, it would seem that
the rule stated by W4KXY would not apply here. A radio can only be used under
one callsign.
In the September 1998 contest, I was on Mt. Equinox in VT photographing the
WB1GQR operation that was used for the Sept. 1999 QST cover. Also on the
mountain was an ARRL official with his own setup. He needed his own grid on
the microwave bands as WB1GQR only had "the bottom 4". He had a 2m HT and a
number of portable transverter boxes which he handed me. I worked him on each
microwave band with this gear. As far as I know, I was the only person he lent
this gear to. Seems legal to me. But then again, the rules were somewhat
different in 1998, and he was a portable operation, not a rover. Is this
scenario covered in the current rules? Can a portable station (or even a fixed
station, as mentioned above) loan equipment to multiple operators?
Arrgh! My brain hurts...
73 & keep roving,
Bruce WW1M
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