[CQ-Contest] Speaking of Courtesy Violations

[Kelly Taylor]

Hi Mel,

I have a couple of thoughts, none of which I hope come across as snide.

If the DX station was running split, it would seem logical to see primarily domestic ops transmitting on his receive frequency, yes? It is also possible that propagation worked against those "lid" (your words) stations in hearing if the frequency was in use, yes? Also, an "is the frequency in use?" would have fallen entirely on deaf ears, since anybody running split would have been listening to the DX station's TX frequency, not his RX frequency.

It is almost commonplace to see DX station's RX frequencies blasted away by stations who -- believing they've found a clear frequency and with no one to say otherwise -- begin calling CQ. It is so routine it doesn't even ruffle any feathers.

So I guess my point is to not beat up on those ops too badly.

As to the rest of your message, it seems that it speaks more to the general increase in activity during contests than any boorish behaviour. One of the hallmarks of a great operator is the ability to withstand heavy QRM and still run rate. So what may seem like boorish behaviour is often merely an operator trying to make the best of a bad situation. I'm never going to suggest to anyone that; "Oh well, band's too busy. Better just turn off the radio and go to bed." All anyone can do is try to squeeze their five cents in sideways. If that increases the level of QRM, well, so be it. I would rather have the bands chock full of people trying to eke out a contest than have it deserted by all but the stations who were there first.

I guess my point is twofold: 1. QRM is a fact of life in contests. 2. How well you cope with No.1 determines how good a contester you are.

I think it is particularly instructive that no complaints about QRM -- none, nada, zippo, zilch -- come from the upper echelons of contesting. I have never heard any of the regularly winning ops complain even one whisper about QRM. And don't think they don't get lots of it, either. That includes the N6/ZF2 who won LP ARRL DX CW -- and set a record, too -- with a stick in the mud and some dipoles in Panama. It also includes the W3 who runs his FT1000MP wide open (no filters) during all contests.

73, kelly
ve4xt

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From: 	KK7SR at arrl.net[SMTP:KK7SR at arrl.net]
Sent: 	30-Oct-00 11:11
To: 	CQ-Contest at contesting.com
Subject: 	[CQ-Contest] Speaking of Courtesy Violations


Greetings -

First, let me say that I had fun during the CQ WW contest - gave out 
as many points as I could, bagged a couple of new countries, went 
into depression when one of my antennas developed a short...

Unfortunately, my memories of the CQ WW will be tainted by the number 
of boorish hams that piled onto a couple of nets that I enjoy just to 
work a needed multiplier.  We are not talking newbies here; there 
were a number of well known contester callsigns heard transmitting 
with reckless abandon and total lack of basic operating courtesy and 
responsibility on a frequency that had been in use for some time.  It 
doesn't matter that the frequency in question was the one asked for 
by the DX station running split.  There is NO excuse for not checking 
to see if a frequency is in use before blasting away with an attempt 
to QSO.

Much has been shared on this list about the need and desire to bring 
newcomers into ham radio and contesting.  It is awfully hard to do 
that when those hams who should be the paradigms of good, 
conscientious operators are, instead, making an art form out of being 
a "lid".

Having vented my electronic spleen, I would like to ask two questions:

	How should this type of activity be dealt with when it happens?

	How do we as contesters limit it in the future?

I relinquish the soapbox.

Mel
KK7SR


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