[CQ-Contest] Deliberate QRM

[Mike Gilmer, N2MG]

> That's why working S&P in a 40M SSB contest is such fun. 1.5KW and a 
> Yagi will take care of your transmit frequency, and the lids have no 
> idea where to jam.

Who's the "jammer" is in the eye of the beholder.

Much of the DX in a phone contest operates split on 40m/75m.  When S&Ping in the old days, one had to twist the dial and often got an 
opportunity to listen to the frequency, albeit briefly, before keying 
the mic.  Now, the "minus sign" loads the TX freq and puts the radio in 
split mode, one can call the DX and log him so quickly that one rarely 
listens to the TX freq.

The obvious problem is that quite often, the DX station picks a 
frequency on which others are already having a QSO. (Yeah, they might 
be *only* pig farmers, but still...)  A few times I found myself having 
to tune past the DX and hope the farmers would go away.  Sometimes they 
did, and the DX was still there to be worked...sometimes not.  Several 
times, of course, in the exuberance of it all, I called without 
listening, worked the DX, then realizing what I had done and against my 
better judgment (it's too late now, right?) listened to my TX freq and 
sure enough, heard the farmers giving them dang "corntesters" (me) a 
tongue lashing. Yes, they can pick a better place (above 3850 would be 
nice) or time (the next weekend) to operate but there they are - I 
never said they were smart...just *there*.

This problem seems worse on 75 as the nets, casual ops, etc., expect QRM on 40m...not so on 75.

Can you see why some of us hate phone contests? ;-)

Mike N2MG