[NLRS] New Field Day and club membership rules

[K0MHC]

Go to: http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2002/01/29/1/?nc=1
for the following text:

The primary Field Day change--effective with this year's event June 22-23--phases
out the Novice-Technician station and replaces it with a new station category, the
Get-On-The-Air"--or GOTA--station. A GOTA station is intended for operation by
Novice and Technician operators or by generally inexperienced or inactive amateurs
as
well as by as-yet-unlicensed or "under-licensed" operators working under the
privileges of a licensed control operator. Under the revised rules, any Class A
Field Day entry operating at least two transmitters may include a GOTA station,
which will not count as an additional transmitter for the purpose of entry category. 

                            The GOTA station may operate on any Field Day band and
mode, but only one GOTA
                            transmitter may be in use at any given time. The GOTA
station may complete up to 400
                            QSOs to be counted toward the group's total Field Day
score. A Field Day group can
claim 100 bonus points, if its GOTA station successfully completes 400 QSOs. The
GOTA station does not affect the
additional VHF/UHF station provided under Field Day rule 4.1.2. 

Field Day 2002 will mark the first in which stations throughout the Americas have
been invited to participate. As approved at ARRL Board of Directors' meeting, all
International Amateur Radio Union Region 2 countries--North and South America--may
take part in Field Day starting this June. 

Complete Field Day rules and information packet will be available on the ARRL Web
Contest Forms and Rules page in early February. Field Day 2002 pins and T-shirt may
be ordered now via the ARRL Web catalog. 

                            The Board also adopted the MSC's recommendations
regarding club competition. In
                            accordance with the advice of the ARRL Contest Advisory
Committee, five specific
                            changes were approved and will go into effect November
1, 2002, when the "General
                            Rules for All ARRL Contests" are updated for the
2002-2003 contest season. Under the
                            revised ARRL club competition rules: 

                            � The Board has altered the requirement that a member
must attend at least two club
                            meetings a year in order to be allowed to submit a score
for a club in the unlimited and
                            medium categories. The new rules will allow
participation by "a member in good
                            standing," as defined by the club. "In part, this change
recognizes that the dynamics of
                            many clubs have changed," said ARRL Contest Branch
Manager Dan Henderson, N1ND.
                            "Many clubs hold meetings on the air and on the
Internet. Many clubs have large, active
                            participation on club e-mail reflectors." Henderson said
that by allowing clubs to define
                            their own standard for "member in good standing," clubs
can include more operators as
                            active participants in contesting activities. 

� Medium and unlimited clubs now may define their club service area either as a
175-mile
radius circle or as an entire ARRL section. This change will allow clubs from larger
states that encompass entire ARRL sections to compete with each other. Clubs may
select
one definition or the other but not both. 

� The percentage of operators who must be members of a club in order for the club to
claim a score from a multioperator station has been reduced from 66% to 50%. 

� A station owner no longer must be a member of a club in order for a guest operator
at the
station to claim the score for that club. 

� Canadian clubs that are full Radio Amateurs of Canada affiliates now may
participate in
the ARRL Affiliated Clubs Competition. 

Complete rules for all ARRL-sponsored operating events are available on the ARRL Web
site. For more information, contact ARRL Contest Branch Manager Dan Henderson,
N1ND, n1nd@arrl.org.