This weekend is the famous Huntsville Hamfest and Alabama ARRL Convention.
Southeastern Division Director, Greg Sarratt (W4OZK) will be in attendance.
Greg is a strong VHF-UHF-Micro contest enthusiast, holds VUCC on 50 & 144 MHZ,
and is now an ARRL PSC member.
At the June Atlanta Hamfest when Greg was manning the ARRL booth, I took the
time to discuss (and somewhat vent) with Greg about recent VUAC recommendations
to the PSC and the apparent "Maverick" image of the PSC that has surfaced in
the VHF-UHF community.
I encourage all ARRL members going to the Huntsville Hamfest that have a stake
in (or a detailed issue with) these discussions around VHF-UHF-Micro-EME
competitions to stop by the ARRL booth and introduce yourself to Greg and chat
with him a few minutes about the PSC activities influencing these competitions.
Don't just approach and "attack" or just ramble on about the PSC, but have your
facts in order so you can detail your specific issue to Greg.
Ron
WW8RR
W4NH Contest Group
-----Original Message-----
From: vhfcontesting-bounces@contesting.com
[mailto:vhfcontesting-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Paul Kiesel
Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 1:03 PM
To: vhfcontesting@contesting.com; frank bechdoldt
Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] Whats up with the ARRL?
The Programs and Services Committee has a lot of stuff on their plate. Most of
it's members are not knowledgible about the VHF weak signal world, but they
want to help. Hence, they created the VUAC, whose members have their own
individual biases and specific lack of knowledge and/or experience.
Recommendations from the VUAC are certain to be weighted by their own biases.
Beyond that, I think that there is an ongoing "need to have contests run like
on HF" mentality and pressure being pushed on ARRL officials by those who
should have no say, such as contest log scoring volunteers, as an example.
Officials in the ARRL rely on these volunteers to take care of a lot of work
that needs to be done and must be grant them listening time. There is also a
large lobby from many old corp EMEers who have influence by virtue of past
contributions to amateur radio and the League.
So, it's not just a matter of the League officials not doing their job. It's
more complicated than that. People on the PSC have indicated that they will be
open to input regarding this "no assisted" rule. The doors haven't been locked
on this.
Something might be said for pushing for change, but this kind of activism is
unwarranted. Pushing to have people boycott contests is not called for.
73,
Paul, K7CW
--- On Sun, 8/9/09, frank bechdoldt <k3uhf@hotmail.com> wrote:
From: frank bechdoldt <k3uhf@hotmail.com>
Subject: [VHFcontesting] Whats up with the ARRL?
To: vhfcontesting@contesting.com
Date: Sunday, August 9, 2009, 9:04 AM
Though I generally try to encourage vhf activity, it seems that it may be a
time to make a statement to the ARRL. Marshall suggested sending in empty logs
in response to the EME rule change. I am not versed well in EME but I think he
has a point. Un assisted may be the ultimate goal, and it is definitely more of
a challenge, but the assisted should be there to help those to the ultimate
goal if they can ever reach it. Compare it to golf, most of us will never be
pros, but we still enjoy the game as an amateur or with a handicap. It seems
that the ARRL has wiped out the amateur and the Handicaps in this arena.
This strikes me as odd considering how they have reached out to encourage
growth in other VHF contests such as the rover category. Its my opinion that
they botched up roving as well and tried to fix it with a band aid when it
needed a major overhaul. That being said, at least the effort was there to
encourage participation even if the PSC chose to ignore some of the
suggestions of the VUAC.
In comparison to that debacle, it seems that the ARRL went the other way with
the EME contests. This shows a total lack of direction from the ARRL. It also
demonstrates that they are no better then a boat with no sail or engine and
they will simply go where the winds and currents of politics go. This leads me
to believe that the ARRL contests are fundamentally flawed and lack any serious
sense of purpose or vision. I believe in some cases like grid circling on
microwave bands they are only manufactured short range QSOs to justify the
monopolization of otherwise unused spectrum and this is why the ARRl allows it
to continue. Its time we took a honest look at ourselves as amateur radio
operators. We have a long history of giving to the human race in various ways.
But we get down right mad if they threaten to take away some spectrum way up in
the microwaves that we will never use more than a few MHZ of. If that
technology can be put to better use then we should give it up.
Or better yet, maybe its time to find a better way to use that spectrum
ourselves and seek to redefine our licenses as to help more people. We have
let the confines of our licenses let technology pass us by and we are becoming
irrelevant unless a natural disaster hits. I challenge the ARRL to do something
useful and to lobby for a redefinition of our privileges on the microwave
bands. One idea ; Let Amateurs set up moderate powered wireless network nodes
in our spectrum above 2.4 ghz and let non hams buy equipment to connect to
them. Imagine a more free internet using ham technology. There has to be
better ideas than this. If we are to continue we must make ourselves relevant.
All of this shows that I think the ARRL is lost. The contest system is
seriously flawed. It can never be perfect but the way they run it is half
hearted and subject to too much politics and lacks any vision or sense of
direction. The things that some of us do to get the little pieces of paper are
sometimes ludicrous and the fact that there is no real tangible standard makes
them somewhat meaning less.
If there was a way to recall the PSC I would do it. For now I agree with
Marshall, if you are alienated due to the lack common sense in the rules just
send in an empty log. Do the contest and work towards your VUCC. At least
there is a sense of direction with that award and a definite standard and the
politics behind it are laid to rest.
k3uhf
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