[CQ-Contest] Sharing Radio Spectrum and Roads

[Mike Gilmer]

I also see the similarity between theses two resources, bands and roads,
however, I see it somewhat differently: no race cars necessary.

I liken the bands to the highways, normally filled, to various degrees, with
"casual" drivers, going to the mall or visiting their friends, etc.  But a
couple of times a day, the roads fill up - rush hour - when room and
civility are at a premium.  Now, a sensible person learns when rush hour
occurs, and unless necessary, avoids the roads at those times.  Casual
drivers may complain about the traffic, but they never claim that the rush
hour drivers should not use certain roads or be banned from certain lanes on
others.

A sensible ham, IMO, learns when contests are going to occur (at least the
BIG ones) and avoids the appropriate bands.  Folks who insist on doing
otherwise are as unreasonable as the contesters so often admonished in these
"opinions".

Trying to complete the analogy, and be reasonable, I realize that emergency
traffic has to have access to these two resources.  Even during rush hour, a
fire truck can get through, even if a bit more slowly.  If and when
contesting and emergency traffic collide, we can look really, really bad,
but I don't think that means all the HF bands need dedicated 50kHz-100kHz
pieces banned from contest use.

Mike N2MG


K1PX wrote:
> I'm essentially convinced that there is no real solution to this
> issue of contesting and non-contesters.
>
> Years ago, I had a racing car and I believe that this situation
> is somewhat akin to holding racing events on public roads along
> with regular traffic. Fortunately, face cars have their own
> tracks or, in some cases, run on public roads with all other
> traffic closed down.