[CQ-Contest] Ownership of a run frequency

[Larry Schimelpfenig]

I had the same thought as Tree regarding a situation where 
one group is actively in a QSO while another individual is 
seeking Qs in a contest, when conditions change, causing 
their efforts to collide. It seems logical to me that 
individuals who have a Q in progress would take precedence 
over someone who wanted to make a Q.

I had an incident take place last night during the NAQP 
phone that raises another question. There are a couple 
schools of thought on whether to ask if a frequency is in 
use before calling CQ. One is to listen briefly and then 
ask. The other is to listen until one is sure there's no-one 
using the frequency.

What happened, is a station down in the gulf was calling CQ. 
The frequency was clear and I responded. As he was giving 
his report someone came on top of him saying there had been 
a rag chew going on 2khz below us and we needed to take our 
contesting elsewhere. We finished the Q and out of curosity 
I listed a bit longer. The fellow in the gulf worked some 
more stations further south that were obviously not 
bothering the rag chewers. Then I listened to the rag 
chewers. One of the four was quite loud, and he's the one 
that complained. So the question is, does one ask if the 
frequency is in use before answering another stations CQ? I 
realize it a ludicrous question, but had to ask anyway!

Tree's thought about the CQ 160 contest rang a bell. Last 
year I was part of an east coast multi effort in that 
contest. I was the first operator and remained on the same 
frequency from the beginning of the contest through the 
first three or four hours. As sunset approached the west 
coast, it was obvious that a CA station was determined to 
use the same frequency. We fought it out for a while and 
then he slid a few hundred hz up from us. It may well be 
that he was on that frequency when the beginning bell rang, 
trying to work the "locals" until propagation lengthened 
out. On the other hand, it's well after sunset on the east 
coast when the contest begins and we were really "making 
hay". Who's the rightful "owner" in this case?

See ya'll on time band, using lp and my own call next 
weekend.

73 de Larry K7SV