Maybe in addition to someone writing an excellent rebuttal to the
"contest free zone" nonsense, we also need someone to write an article for
QST aimed at the general HF audience about operating phone under crowded
band conditions.
In the 2003 ARRL Phone Sweepstakes, on Sunday, there were signals on
20 meters every 1.5 to 2 kHz throughout the band. I had been calling CQ
on 14.302 for some time when a station who never identified came on
frequency, told me that the Maritime Mobile Net had just started up 2 kHz
below me, and could I please move a little. I pointed out to this station
that I was already 2 kHz away, isn't that enough, and he answered no and
left. Well, not wanting to repeat this over and over again, I slide up
400 Hz or so, which is a little painful to the high end of my passband,
but not unmanageable. Not five minutes later, another contester hears
this huge gaping hole in the band starts calling CQ between us. Now,
the Maritime Mobile Net and I are far worse off than we were before.
(Later, on 40 meters phone, there were signals every 500 to 800 Hz
throughout the entire band.)
This past weekend, in the 2004 NAQP Phone, I had been calling CQ on
3819.5 for a half hour or more when some ragchewers start up on 3818.0 and
_immediately_ begin complaining about the contest. I tell them twice that
the frequency is in use, but they don't go away. All they do is complain
about the contest - I can't really understand everything they're saying,
but we're close enough in frequency that I get the gist of it. I'm
still working stations at a very good clip, so I ignore it until I notice
there's a little more space above me and slide up to 3820.0. I'm now a full
2 kHz above these other guys, but of course we're still in each others'
passbands a little bit - no longer enough for me to bothered by it at all,
but of course they are still complaining about the contest because that's
probably why they got on the air in the first place. So, maybe 45 minutes
after the ragchewers show up, some non-identifying station comes on my
frequency and tells me that I better move because I'm interfering with a
QSO below me. I try to explain that they started their QSO on top of me,
but his rebuttal is that they've been complaining about me for two hours,
which of course is a bald lie - they haven't been on the air even an hour.
After another five or ten minutes, I slide up another 500 Hz or so, and
twenty minutes later, I notice they've left.
The point is, some phone operators have an unreasonable expectation
that they can have 3 kHz of separation from adjacent signals all the time.
Unfortunately, there will be times when demand for spectrum on the HF
phone bands far exceeds the supply and 3 kHz of separation between adjacent
signals is completely unreasonable. Hams ought to take pride in being able
to maintain effective communications under such conditions - it's one
of the things that separates radio operators from telephone operators.
Instead, some operators use crowded band conditions as an opportunity to
get upset and behave poorly.
--
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Kenneth E. Harker "Vox Clamantis in Deserto" kharker@cs.utexas.edu
University of Texas at Austin Amateur Radio Callsign: WM5R
Department of the Computer Sciences Central Texas DX & Contest Club
Taylor Hall TAY 2.124 Maintainer of Linux on Laptops
Austin, TX 78712-1188 USA http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/
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