[CQ-Contest] IARU - Join Us

[Steve Harrison]

At 08:40 AM 6/16/2007 -0700, you wrote:
>Ok, then disallow CW. :-)
>
>Seriously, except for 40 meters, CW and RTTY normally use different
>band segments. It would work if people want it to.
>
>Bill W6WRT

With a straight face, try telling that to we who've recently competed in CW
tests when there was a Ratty test going on at the same time. While 40 is
the worst place for both, 20 has also been nearly as bad when conditions
were good. If you don't believe that, go find and ask some county hunters,
who normally occupy 40 to 50. I'm not a county hunter but don't appreciate
the digs and Rattiers moving into their subbands to avoid voice QRM due to
the expanded phone bands, thus forcing the CHers further down where other
contests are taking place.

When the sunspots come back, simultaneous QRM between CW and
diggers/Rattiers is going to be horrible, if we don't establish gentlemen's
agreement subbands NOW, and ostracize those not sticking with them.

The FCC's expansion of the phone bands has had a very deleterious effect
upon all non-voice operators and with the present FCC administration,
that's not going to change soon. While the VEs and other non-US guys have
long had voice subbands below 100, the big difference is that suddenly,
there's 100,000 more of us able to use those subbands; the population down
there just increased by an order of magnitude or more.

There was no justification for what the FCC did, and I don't rember that
they even bothered asking the opinions of those who would be affected,
before the fact. Clearly, that idea of expanding the phone bands
willy-nilly was conceived by the same people who don't believe the facts
regarding BPL interference.

Steve, K0XP