[CQ-Contest] Feb 04 QST op-ed article

[WA7VNI]

Regarding the statement "... gratis HF comms for wealthy
yachtsmen who should be making use of commercial
communications services."

Sorry Mike, but that is an inflammatory statement that is
without merit in many cases. Are some of those folks
wealthy? Sure, however many others are just "regular" folks
who busted their butts in hourly wage factory type jobs,
saved their pennies and managed to buy a small boat (often
under 30 ft. in length) and are out there seeing the world
on a shoe string. I personally know several who are doing so
with budgets that do not exceed $10,000 a year total,
meaning food, boat maintenance, port fees, etc. Here in the
US at least that's hardly considered "wealthy". As a result
of such budget limitations those small boats do not enjoy
the "commercial comms" you refer to. Additionally, the
operators are in fact Hams and have the same rights to the
freq.'s that we in the contest community do. 

I am NOT supporting the proposal made by the QST author nor
lining up on the anti-contest side of this argument but as
others have pointed out inflammatory statements of any kind
("regular" folks against the "wealthy" in this case) don't
help the debate but only serve to make us look unreasonable.

73 
Patrick 
WA7VNI

-----Original Message-----
From: cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of
Michael Keane, K1MK
Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2004 18:27 PM
To: cq-contest at contesting.com
Subject: RE: [CQ-Contest] Feb 04 QST op-ed article

Snip....snip...

 From the limited times I've listened to them, the primary
"public service" 
the Maritime Mobile net provides would seem to be gratis HF
comms for wealthy yachtsmen who should be making use of
commercial communications services. Otherwise their primary
purpose seems to be to stand guard and keep a 20 frequency
occupied 24/7. To each his own...

Snip....snip...

73,
Mike K1MK

Michael Keane K1MK
k1mk at arrl.net