[Laser] Laser comm and ARRL?

[Art]

Good day all,

Some number of years ago, there was a brief discussion about petitioning 
the ARRL to update their standards regarding what they considered a valid 
laser contact was.

For now, it's any 2 way contact using laser (must be coherent) light, not 
an LED or flashlight. There must be one electronic detection stage, and the 
equipment must be capable of covering one KM. For conest purposes, each 
laser Q must have a separate transmitter/receiver for each laser contact 
made (to prevent manufactured QSO's).

Despite the tremendous availability of laser gear we have today, laser 
contacts during the vhf contest and the 10 Ghz and up contest is a pretty 
rare event.

I live 90 miles from Mt. Washington (NH) and it is a favorite destination 
for rovers during the contests, but I easily work stations there on 2m. 
Yet, every time I ask someone there (on Mt. Washington) for a laser Q, they 
reply 'no laser', even though I know a few of them are QRV on laser.

I can't say I blame them, laser is very time consuming (alignment/initial 
signal acquisition) and is a little more difficult to do in daylight. But, 
the real killer is that a laser contact counts no more than any other 
microwave contact-so there is absolutely no incentive for a rover to carry 
laser gear and to devote the additional time needed to make a laser Q.

I'd like to see a laser qso with LED's count as a qso. I think that a 
minimum distance for a laser contact might be 5 miles-this would ease the 
fear among non-laser people that laser contacts could be easily 
'manufactured' in great quantity. I'd like to see laser contacts score 10X 
higher than a 10 GHz qso as well, after all, these qso's generally take 
much longer to make because of the precision of the aiming equipment 
needed. I'd like to see Laser VUCC standards lowered so that 3 QSO's with 
surrounding grids counts for VUCC-after all, these contacts are much harder 
than microwaves.

Does anyone else feel the same way? Does anyone know what the accepted 
manner to petition the ARRL to make changes regarding laser comm standards???

Thanks,

Art