[PaQSO] County Line Ops

[Jim]

I may be in the minority here, but I do not like the
concept of county line operation.  You are either in
one county or the other.  Since a line is imaginary
and paper thin, it can be no other way.  CL operation
is a clever way to “bend” the rules.  

Imagine a QSO without CL operation.  It would be
harder to work all counties, which is good.  It seems
that many stations are claiming the bragging rights,
anymore.  Also, in our age of single op with two
radios, voice keyers, computer code, packet spotting,
etc., the contest has become easier than ever.  If ops
are looking to take a fun contest and make it into
work, it should be made harder.  If an op buys the
toys, he can annihilate the competition, which is
somewhat unfair.  Where is the fun?  Isn’t that the
entire point of the QSO?  

My experience with lines is that many of them are not
well suited to mobile operation.  You typically must
pull onto the shoulder, if there is one, which is
quite risky.  Most people do NOT pay attention while
driving anymore, so you are really chancing it.  Are
we assuming that the PennDot signs are accurate, or
not?

Another thing is the close enough argument.  If you
look at a map, you can see that Lancaster and York
counties border each another, but the Susquehanna
River is between them.  Can I sit on the riverbank and
claim county line?  After all, I am as close as I can
get, since it would be unwise to block a travel lane
on a bridge.  

Going by the technical definition that I have heard
here about being right on the line, I have some
serious doubts that all the mobiles are exactly on the
lines and all the portable operations have antennas
crossing the lines.  There have been numerous CL
operations over the years, so it seems a tad unlikely
that they were all 100% accurate.  OK, so even if my
antenna crosses the line, do I have to be present at
the line to operate?  Can I run 100 feet of cable and
operate 100 feet from the line and still claim CL?

On CW a CL also gets confusing, especially if it is a
call you are not familiar with.

All of the above clearly demonstrate the issues with
CL operation.  I am in favor of eliminating them and
forcing people to give one county.  That would make
the contest fairer, harder, more fun, and eliminate
any ambiguity.  

I am betting that this will stoke some of you up, but
it needed to be said.

Jim
N3PBH



		
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