[CQ-Contest] Real emergencies

[Kelly Taylor]

Mal,

I hope you aren't being serious. No regulator is going to propose that
between the alternatives of someone's death or a brief, otherwise illegal
communication, a person must instead die. If self-defence can be
successfully used as a defence in a homicide, surely saving a life can be
used as a defence of a trivial infraction like this!

I doubt Riley would even bat an eye at such a matter!

C'mon, Mal. Be real. You would rather people die than invade our spectrum
for the briefest moment?

What is really interesting in all this, however, is that the pro-14300 crowd
has conveniently omitted one salient detail: the last time a marine
emergency happened involving ham radio and contesters, wasn't it the
CONTESTERS who stepped in to save a life?

73, kelly
ve4xt
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "N7MAL" <N7MAL at CITLINK.NET>
To: <W0uo at cs.com>; ""Bryan W5KFT"" <w5kft at nts-online.net>;
<cq-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2005 4:36 PM
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Real emergencies


> NO  NO  NO
> While what W5KFT did was, maybe, morally correct what he did was very,
very, illegal. The citation would probably be several pages long.
> 1. He knowingly communicated with an unlicensed station.
> 2. He knowingly communicated with an unlicensed station who was using a
radio, by his own admission, not approved for use in the Amateur Radio
service.
> etc etc etc
>
> Unless an emergency is declared by the appropriate authorities it is not
up to an individual amateur radio operator to decide, on his own, that
something is an emergency and begin non-amateur communications. There are
several emergencies every year where amateur radio is requested to get
involved. Frequencies are set aside, by the emergency declaration, for
handling, primarily, health & welfare traffic always between licensed
stations.
>
> These situations are well defined in the regulations and stations like
NN2NN & W5KFT, while questionably performing an admirable service, are
violating the regulations and are subjecting themselves to fines and
possibly losing their licenses.
>
>
>
> MAL           N7MAL
> BULLHEAD CITY, AZ
> http://www.ctaz.com/~suzyq/N7mal.htm
>
>
>   ----- Original Message ----- 
>   From: W0uo at cs.com
>   To: "Bryan W5KFT" ; cq-contest at contesting.com
>   Sent: Tuesday, March 29, 2005 18:50
>   Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Real emergencies
>
>
>   Bryan
>
>   Well Said
>
>   Jim W0UO/5
>
>
>   "Bryan W5KFT" <w5kft at nts-online.net> wrote:
>
>   >A couple of years ago when 10 meters was really rocking, I had a really
>   >interesting situation come up in the ARRL 10 meter contest.
>   >
>   >I was running stations on about 28430 when a station comes on and says,
>   >"Breaker Breaker Emergency Emergency". At first I thought it was a joke
and
>   >just went on running stations. In a few moments he came back on and
>   >repeated the "Breaker Breaker Emergency". I asked the station for his
call.
>   >
>   >The station came back on and said, "I don't have a call, I am not a
ham".
>   >He went to tell me that he was a trucker on the Interstate in Ohio and
that
>   >the had just driven up on a major multi vehicle pileup. His "CB" was
>   >actually a converted ham rig that still worked 10 meters. The
interesting
>   >part is that he told me he needed to get help immediately"so he picked
out a
>   >LOUD signal and said EMERGENCY because he knew that he could ask hams
for
>   >help" Not an assigned frequency, not a net, he wanted somebody LOUD
that
>   >he could communicate with. This guy didn't even have a license but he
knew
>   >what to do.
>   >
>   >I made a long distance call to Ohio State Police and gave the location
of
>   >the wreck and then went back to contesting. In about 30 minutes again
it
>   >was "Breaker Breaker" and the trucker came back on to tell me that
police
>   >and EMS were on the scene and things were being taken care, and a big
thanks
>   >from him.
>   >
>   >I think that it is a good point that in the event of a really true
emergency
>   >that many contesters have a lot to offer and at the top of the list is
BIG
>   >SIGNALS. It would be interesting if we could know if those folks really
in
>   >need of help would go to the antenna in the attic group on some special
>   >frequency or if they would select a BIG signal contest station they
could
>   >really hear well.....
>   >
>   >A point to ponder.....
>   >
>   >Bryan W5KFT
>   >
>   >
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