[ILQSO] New Mobile Rules

[Hank Greeb]

K8BB de n8xx:

Yeah, some of us drove >300 miles, and spent $$'s for three daze food, 
and two nights at a motel to be able to operate in the ILQP last year.

I know of one operator who wouldn't have made such a trip had a four 
county corner operation not been permissible.

Last year, the ILQP wasn't as popular as some of the State QSO parties 
in which I've operated "in state" but there was enough activity to 
attract me again this year.

If it becomes a 'vanilla state QSO party' I probably will stay in 
Michigan and operate for a few hours.  I haven't found a state QSO party 
which has enough activity from an out of state perspective to make it 
worth 8 or 12 hours.  Chasing even 1/2 dozen mobiles around after 
working all the in state folks which can be heard on a particular band 
doesn't do much for me.

73 de n8xx Hg

k8bb at comcast.net wrote:

> 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 
>