[CQ-Contest] WW SSB

[Bill Coleman]

On Oct 30, 2005, at 6:06 PM, Alan Leith wrote:
> Two things bothered me about this weekend's CQWWDX SSB contest:
>
> 1.  The flagrant use by US stations listening down on 40M, Canadians
> between 7000 and 7050 and Europeans and South Americans using the  
> bottom
> end of 40M on SSB.

Make 40m bigger, worldwide. Problem solved. Contact the ITU.

> 2.  The useless spots on packet for Europeans.  Packet was moving  
> so fast,
> most of the time, I couldn't keep up with all the crappy spots.  I,  
> for
> one, didn't need to see a spot for an overpowered European contest  
> station
> that was 40 over.  I won't name the offenders who did the spotting  
> but I
> think they should have known better.

Useless to you, maybe, but not to everyone. At M/M and M/S stations,  
we often depend on those "useless" spots to pick up extra Qs as well  
as mults. We also send a boatload of them, too.

There's plenty of software around to filter out the "useless" spots.  
If there's a type of spot you don't want to see, filter it out. Don't  
expect everyone around the world to do your filtering for you.

> I know that Canada, and perhaps many other countries, don't have  
> sub bands
> but enough is enough.  Granted, the bands are crowded but for goodness
> sake, don't squeeze out those of us who like CW.

CW will have it's opportunity to squeeze out SSB in about four  
weekends. And it will.

The reality is that MOST countries do not have subbands. Almost none  
have subbands as restrictive as the USA. The USA is the exception,  
not the rule.

> I spent a lot of time listening this weekend, even made a couple of
> QSOs, and I really didn't like a lot of what I heard, especially on  
> 40M.

40m needs more space. Tell your ITU representative we need 7000-7300  
worldwide. Then maybe CW won't get crowded out.

George William Coleman              mail:  aa4lr at arrl.net
Senior Software Developer           phone: 770 978-0196