[ILQSO] Re: New Mobile Rules

[k8bb at comcast.net]

Mike,

Congrats on alienating some of your strongest participants.

If it were not for out-of-state participants, the state QSO parties 
(Illinois included) may not have the strong participation they enjoy. 
Suggestions from outside operators can be valuable in shaping the character 
of a particular contest, thereby making it more desirable to operate, 
especially if it might encourage mobiles or portables to travel to another 
state (think about it) to participate. Having done this before, I can tell 
you it is time-consuming and can be quite costly.

In your message, you said, "We are not "other state QSO parties", we are the 
Illinois QSO party!" However, Hal Offutt is right - due to the recent 
change, from a rules standpoint and therefore an operating strategy 
standpoint, the ILQP has lost its unique "Illinois quality" for mobiles and 
instead now looks a lot like other neighboring QSO parties in this regard. 
Will this affect whether or not neighboring ops drive to Illinois to 
participate? Maybe. But I'll bet that a confrontational attitude toward the 
suggestions of out-of-state participants, without whom you will have far 
fewer QSOs, will do more damage.

As for county-line operations, it is one quality of the ILQP that is still 
unique in contrast to some nearby states. I applaud you and the other ops 
for your big-time portable operations (four QSOs in one is always OK in my 
log!) and I hope such operations continue to be permitted in the future. 
Additionally, I hope the ILQP planning committee do consider some of the 
qualities that make their event unique and interesting and will refine their 
rules to attract more (and continued) support from outside Illinois.

73!
Don Chisholm K8BB
out-of-state winner, 2006 ILQP

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "schrowmt" <schrowmt at nabbnet.com>
To: "Illinois QSO Party" <ilqso at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, July 09, 2007 1:58 PM
Subject: Re: [ILQSO] Re: New Mobile Rules


> Since when does someone from out of state have the right to complain how 
> we run our contest?!? Why does this person want to destroy the county line 
> portable operations? Does this person drive many miles and endure 
> countless obstacles and good old Mr. Murphy to give out multipliers to all 
> the stations looking to work them all? I suggest you come over to our 
> county line portable location and see how it is really done! We have our 
> ground wire going through all four corners. We have photos to prove it! 
> Since when does having our setup fifty feet from the corners make such a 
> difference? Nit-pick, nit-pick. Leave us run our contest and you can stay 
> home in your state and do what you do. We are not "other state QSO 
> parties", we are the Illinois QSO party! Don't get me wrong, we welcome 
> you or anyone else to come and help us out with multipliers but I am 
> getting a little tired hearing how we are not doing what everybody else is 
> doing. The WIARC has a very tough job running the annual contest and I 
> don't envy them but I have every bit of faith and respect for them. There, 
> I said my piece and if I offend anyone, I am truly sorry but it is my 
> opinion and mine only. Good luck to all and looking forward to the 
> ILLINOIS QSO PARTY. 73, Mike N9GZ