[Elecraft] FD Battery rules (was QRP Power Level?)

[N2EY at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/8/06 10:30:09 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
wood at lpbroadband.net writes:


> perhaps the new FD person will fix the morass he created.

That depends in part on how he is approached. A negative approach will 
usually produce a negative response.

And a group request will probably have more impact than one person.

> 
> For example, I pointed out to him that everyone who operates class A and AB
> gets to claim the emergency power bonus, because a requirement of class A is
> that all contacts are made independent of commercial mains. His answer was
> that that's true unless you use commercial mains anyway, which puts you in
> class A-commercial...say what!?!.

That was done for a bunch of reasons. Some groups have a lot of trouble with 
emergency power - the generator doesn't show up, won't start, etc. Should they 
not do FD at all, or be lumped in with home stations? Or should they fudge 
the report and say they were 100% emergency power when they weren't? 

By listing them as "1A Commercial", they participate, but not against 
emergency power groups. Best of all worlds.

 Before about 1992, the emergency power
> 
> bonus was a true bonus, applied only when everything at the site
> (coffeepots, lights, etc.) was run off generator or batteries. They changed
> that rule to accommodate groups who wanted to use incidental light because
> of where they set up (e.g., a park with lights, or a building where they
> could use existing lights). 

I pointed out that a simple allowance for the
> 
> use of incidental light in the FAQ would have fixed this. But Dan stubbornly
> refused to fix this - or that nonsensical "Class A Commercial" subgroup.
> 

There was a time when emergency power wasn't a bonus - it was a *multiplier*!

It's not just about incidental light, though. It's about getting FD sites in 
a world where the classic open field is becoming increasingly hard to find. 
And where the amateur population includes more and more folks who aren't used to 
or aren't able to "rough it".

For example, suppose a local middle school cafeteria is available for an FD 
site. No existing radio facilities, good parking and access, and a big open 
field for antennas. The site also boasts clean bathrooms, a ready-to-go kitchen, 
long, solid tables, lighting, and air conditioning!

Should such a site be off limits to A and B groups?

> In recent years, ARRL has tried to remove the "contest" aspect from FD. 
> Even
> in my local club, some members griped that FD was meant to be "fun" and not
> a contest. That trivializes a serious effort to do well AND have fun.

Different definitions of "fun".

The great strength and weakness of FD is that it's so many different things: 
emergency exercise, contest, social event, training school, camping excursion, 
get-newcomers-on-the-air opportunity, rig/antenna comparison shootout, 
publicity stunt, and much more. 

 If
> 
> they turn FD into a "fun event" and eliminate scoring, this FD regular in 4A
> will quit.
> 
> 

The way to prevent that is for each of us to make our views known in an 
*inclusive* way.

73 de Jim, N2EY