In a message dated 2/25/00 1:05:08 AM Eastern Standard Time, k4ro@k4ro.net
writes:
>
> I am curious how the contesting community feels about this one.
> This is not intended as an exercise in finger pointing, although
> I am tempted to note one particular example from a very prominent
> USA M/M station this last weekend. But what's the point? Everybody
> knows that it happens, and most ops know who the worst offenders are.
> Just like most people know who runs gas, etc., word gets out.
Go ahead and name the names, so long as you can also document the time,
frequency, etc. Several years I was the victim of what I considered an
egregious frequency theft by N2RM. I mentioned it in a contest/3830 posting,
with details. I got a prompt response from RM explaining that the operator
involved was a non-regular, and a guy who was newer to contesting. And RM
promised to have a talk with the guy and explain to him what was and was not
acceptable operating practice. I accepted this apology, and feel much better
for it all, rather than keeping quiet and bitching to this day that the N2RM
crew is bunch of jerks, which they are not.
We can never have "peer pressure" if no one will step up to identify the bad
guys.
> The question is simple: is it OK to take a frequency from someone?
Are there times when it is OK and times when it is not? Please explain.
I would cut some slack for DX stations in rare places. If CE0ZY or 5H3US
needs a frequency where he can run the hundreds of guys who will need him for
a new multiplier, and maybe even a new DXCC country, I wouldn't get bent out
of shape if they became aggressive frequency hunters. Especially if he
worked me first. Note the rareness factor. This does not apply to DLs, OKs,
etc.
> Is it acceptable for mega-stations to battle it out in the "prime"
> real-estate, and the "meek & weak" should stay the hell away? :-)
The bottom band edges are always filled by the big M/Ms, and I don't know how
or when the edge position is decided from the handful of candidates. But
those frequencies are never open when I get there, so I don't sweat it.
I think a more interesting question may be: When is it OK for a station to
take a frequency vacated (temporarily, in his mind) by a big station? In
the last CQWW SSB, which I was not actively involved in, I ran across this
situation: I was just listening around on 20 meters, and heard KC1XX at
14165 calling a VE2 or some such non exotic station. Since I had previously
heard XX CQing on 14150, I went to 14150, which was empty. If I had started
CQing there (I did not) would I then have had the "claim" to 150? Should XX
have had any expectation of having 150 available after he had changed
frequencies to call and work that VE2? Would it have mattered if I had
worked anyone else on 150 before XX returned?
I'm sure that the resolution to this hypothetical case would have come under
the category of "might makes right". But it does have some bearing on the
remarkable (to me) situation where the big multis seem to start, end, and
spend every minute in between, CQing on the same frequency.
Jim K8MR
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