[CQ-Contest] VHF Contest QRM

[Ron Notarius WN3VAW]

My club held our annual regional 2 meter simplex contest Saturday night.

On returning home, I learned that several days ago, a local repeater owner
complained (not to any member of my club, let alone those running the
contest, but to another club he belonged to) that for the 4 hour duration of
the contest, his repeater input was going to be affected by contesters
because we had failed to exclude the repeater input frequency(s), only it's
output one(s).

Now you might think that after running the contest for 4 years, if there was
a problem, someone would have said something to us.  Heck, I run into this
repeater owner at least a half dozen times over the spring, summer and fall
at various hamfests, and this is the first we've ever heard about it -- and
not even directly yet.  And no, we don't know what repeater(s) or
frequency(s) are affected, he hasn't told us and he hasn't answered any
email, at least not yet.

Now there are two interesting things to consider:
First, for the FM mode (we do FM, SSB & CW), we don't specify specific
frequencies.  We tell people to use the recognized FM simplex (15 kHz
spaced) channels as per the ARRL band plan, excepting 146.520 MHz, of
course.  So it appears implied at least that this repeater is using a
recognized simplex channel for one or more of it's input frequencies... and
it also appears implied that this frequency may not be protected by PL
(oops! I mean CTCSS, sorry Motorola) which is recommended by the Western PA
Repeater Council.  (Incidently, the WPRC web page also shows the recognized
FM simplex frequency range if not the specific 15 kHz channels)

Second, the repeater owner is the WPRC Frequency Coordinator.  Now you'd
think if anyone ought to know the correct repeater frequencies, he would,
right?

So my question to the group, do you think we should add a "no repeater
input" provision to the rules, or just forget the whole thing and let him
worry about it?

73, ron wn3vaw

"I'd give real money if he'd just shut up!"
Dr. Leonard McCoy, "Start Trek VI:  The Hills Are Alive with the Sounds of
Klingons"