Just received from Dan Henderson, N1ND at HQ.
73, Ward N0AX
At its July 16 meeting, the Programs and Services Committee unanimously
accepted and approved a recommendation from its VHF and Above
Revitalization Committee to remove the prohibition of making contest
contacts on 146.52 MHz simplex. This rule, as we understand it,
originated back to when 2-meter radios were mostly rock-bound and the
use of 146.52 MHz was commonplace. The VHF and Above Revitalization
Committee's research concluded that the 146.52-exclusive restriction is
unnecessary today. It was also reviewed by the ARRL Executive Committee
at its October 2015 meeting.
Permitting the use of 146.52 MHz would allow new/curious contesters
possessing only FM mode radios to stumble on more contacts, increasing
the chances that they will be drawn further into VHF+ contesting, which
is the primary aim of the Revitalization committee. Word of the
Revitalization committee's recommendation and PSC's subsequent approval
was floated at last July’s Central States VHF Conference and met with
great enthusiasm.
This rule change eliminates Rule 1.8 in the “General Rules for ARRL
Contests Above 50 MHz”, with the subsequent sections of Rule 1 being
renumbered accordingly.It becomes effective with the 2016 ARRL January
VHF Contest and subsequent ARRL VHF Contests. It also will be
incorporated into the ARRL Field Day rules.
Dan Henderson, N1ND
Regulatory Information Manager / Acting Contest Manager
ARRL, the national association for Amateur Radio
860-594-0236
dhenderson@arrl.org <mailto:dhenderson@arrl.org>
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