[PaQSO] re: new award, good neighbor

[Michael Coslo]

On Sep 8, 2007, at 7:14 PM, ka3qlf at comcast.net wrote:

> I tried to send to the reflector,but it only went to Mike by  
> accident. I am very much in support of the good neighbor award,  
> however when I read thenew rules, I was shocked to see it limited  
> to 20M. While in this stage of the sunspot cycle, 20M may be the  
> "long distance band",  in another year or two 15, and 10M will also  
> be open. Heck..you never know..this year 15 or even 10 may decide  
> to cooperate, so why limit ti to 20M? I though of two suggestions  
> regarding this situation:
> 1. Open the award to all bands
> 2. Have individual band awads


Good feedback, Scott.

	The impetus for the good neighbor award was to encourage partyers to  
head on up to 20 meters for a while so that OOS Ops can get in on the  
fun.

	A number of us have been calling for increased presence on 20 meters  
for some time now. There are a lot of people out there especially in  
the southern states, who are ready and willing to get involved in the  
party, if only we are there to QSO with them. I know this is true,  
because 2 years ago, I was generating some pileups on 20 meters. I  
was keeping up with John, W3JXP - no small feat- for a fair amount of  
time.  It was worthwhile from the QSO perspective.

	The issue of what bands to use for the award is based on what the Op  
might be giving up. 20 isn't all that great for QSOs with other PA  
Ops and the nearby states due to propagation. But there is plenty of  
OOS hop further away. and DX and County Hunters to keep us busy.  So  
a little side award like the Good Neighbor might just get some  
competitive juices flowing as well as allow more Hams into the party.

	Opening up more bands to Good Neighbor status such as 15M is a  
pretty good idea. We'll see how things work out this year.


-73 de Mike KB3EIA -