My analogy is the hospital parking lot. On a light day everyone has an
easy time of it. On a busy day, everyone has to struggle for a parking
spot and only the true emergencies get to park at the door (and even
then only temporarily). And anyone who drives a 4 KHz wide RV to the
hospital on a busy day is an idiot reviled by everyone.
In my opinion, contests (like them or not) generate the majority of
activity on the bands, and during a major one EVERYONE struggles to find
an open spot. I have several times listened to the Maritime Net and I
have never once heard them handle what I would consider emergency
traffic. I'm not saying they don't provide a useful service, but
they're doing so on a public band and in the absence of a true emergency
I don't see how they have any justifiable expectation to less QRM than
anyone else. I too have heard them chase off guys 2KHz away that were
there before the net fired up.
In actual practice I stay away from their frequency but that's my
choice, not their right.
73,
Dave AB7E
kr2q@optimum.net wrote:
> I did not know about this. Even more, look at their home page:
> http://www.mmsn.org/
>
> The petition "background" is amazing to me. I quote:
> "The Maritime Mobile Service Net (MMSN) operates on 14300.0 KHz, 365 days a
> year, from 12
> noon until 10 PM Eastern time. "
>
> So they effectively own this QRG for 10 hours per day, every day? And you
> have to just
> love the precision: "decimal zero." :-)
>
> Additionally, they claim massive support (TIC): "This was the wish of all
> nearly 100 amateurs attending the GAREC meeting. "
>
> Wow...100 of them, huh? Let's see, if we add up the ops at the top 10
> M/M's...that would be...
> oh, more than 100. Not to mention the ten of thousands of contest
> participants nor the
>
>> 5000 entrants (SSB CQWW).
>>
>
> They have a petition? We should too. Any volunteers?
>
> I'm all in favor of emergency ops taking priority...but only when there is an
> emergency. Just
> how many lives have been lost because their NET heard contesters actually
> contesting that
> prevented them from "doing their thing?"
>
> The thing that further gets me, is that they think that we are somehow
> focusing on them;
> I guess they are unable to actually the band beyond their own net QRG.
>
> As far as I know, nobody should have exclusive rights to any QRG, never mind
> for
> "365 days a year, from 12 noon until 10 PM"
>
> What brass!
>
> de Doug KR2Q
> _______________________________________________
> CQ-Contest mailing list
> CQ-Contest@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
>
>
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