[Laser] Changes to ARRL VHF contest rules

[Tim Toast]

I agree it's a bit too early to be speculating on exactly how the 
rule will be worded. I am happy with LEDs being moved into the 
"coherent" category. When i first read the power limit, i thought 
of the way they usually define maximum power limits with RF - input 
power to the antenna... Which may have changed by now i'm not sure. 
Light is more normally defined by watts per sq cm though, so i would 
say they probably mean 5 milliwatts per sq cm - which is fine. Nothing 
unfair about that.

So, for bare lasers with no large output collimator (beam spreader), 
they would be limited to 5 milliwatts output, which makes sense for 
eye-safety reasons. For other setups that have a collimator, 5 
milliwatts per sq cm max at the output apature would mean up to about 
50 watts of power with one meter sized optics (and still be eye-safe) 
Again, you wont hear any complaints from me about this. So we will 
wait and see what the rule actually says now.