[CQ-Contest] 14.300 MHz

[Kenneth E. Harker]

On Mon, Mar 28, 2005 at 01:59:50AM -0500, Tom VE3II wrote:

> Moving the net to 17 meters, or any other frequency, is not an 
> option.  This would create a totally unacceptable and dangerous  
> situation that would place lives in jeopardy.  Unlike contesting, 
> what we do on 14.300 is serious, life and death work.  We don't 
> collect points, we don't go for the rare ones, we save lives.   

If your use of the Amateur frequencies is SO MUCH MORE IMPORTANT than
any other Amateur activity, perhaps you should be using a different 
radio service to accomplish these objectives.  Perhaps the Martitime 
Mobile service would make far more sense in the first place:
http://wireless.fcc.gov/marine/  Why, exactly, is the Martitime Mobile
Service not the best choice for mariners in need of emergency 
communications?  Is that not why the Maritime Mobile Service exists in
the first place??

>From what I can tell on the web, the 14.300 MHz net was first 
established in the 1980s.  Phone contesting on 20 meters, as far
as I know, was well established by the 1980s.  Rather than choose 
a frequency for the Maritime Mobile Net on, for example, 17 meters,
where weekend contention for frequency space is not an issue, 
the net chose to locate itself on the single most popular HF band
and then demand a perfectly clean frequency worldwide for 15 hours 
a day - does that even begin to make sense?

Finally, is there any documented case of a genuine emergency not 
being served on 14.300 MHz because of contest activity?


I don't think anyone objects to those with a common interest getting
together on the radio.  But the idea that a small group owns a 
frequency, or that their use of the spectrum is inherently more 
important (even when it's far, far less popular) seems unsuited 
to the Amateur Radio Service.


-- 
Kenneth E. Harker WM5R
kenharker at kenharker.com
http://www.kenharker.com/