[CQ-Contest] Feb 04 QST op-ed article--any hard facts available?

[W. Wright, W5XD]

Both sides of this argument seem to be failing to present any cold hard
facts. I would find it useful to know the answers to questions like these:
On how many occasions over the past year have contesters disrupted
non-contest communications? On what frequencies? To what degree? For how
many hours were communications stopped? or were they slowed? What are the
numbers?

Emergency and public service communications seem to be the thread of the
article. How many contest stations participate in these? (That is, are there
some real numbers that indicate that there is no real distinction between
the "us" and "them" spelled out in the article?) What has happened in the
past when a real emergency occurs during a contest? (Back before sea-going
vessels all had cheap satellite communications, I regularly used my contest
station for phone patch traffic to a research vessel in Antarctic
waters--surely there are more up to date stories?)

If I were in a situation where my life depended on emergency communications
on the ham bands, I would MUCH rather it be one of the contest
super-stations AND their winning operators involved than the guys that are
apparently complaining about the use of spectrum by those same stations. But
do we have a way to make this obvious?

Wayne, W5XD