[CQ-Contest] Malicious Interference during SS

[Chris Plumblee]

I experienced blessedly little intentional interference this year in
phone SS. W4QG and I split the op time about down the middle but found
ourselves in the extra-class portion of 20m most of the time. I don't
know if it impacted the interference we would have received, but we
did run most of the contest with no speech processor on Paul's MP. I
tried turning it on for a while, but I think it needed some contact
cleaner as the control was very touchy and erratic.

I'm well aware of KZ8O and his propensity for intentional
interference, particularly toward contesters. K4XS has had problems
with him during phone SS for a number of years now. This year another
FL station mentioned to me in a private phone call that KZ8O tried to
jam him near the beginning of the contest but he was able to run him
off.

The critical step we should take (in my experience) is to ignore the
intentional interference as completely as possible and move if rate is
impacted. Part of what KZ8O and other jammers want is to engage the
contester in a battle of words on the band, resulting in both stations
looking pretty foolish. Of course, the jammer is already intentionally
interfering with ongoing QSOs, so they've got a little bit less to
lose in that regard.

73,
Chris WF3C
Orlando, FL

Op @ W4QG


Message: 1
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2008 23:02:43 -0700
From: "Tod -ID" <tod at k0to.us>
Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Malicious Interference during SS
To: <KI9A at aol.com>,     <rmthorne at suddenlink.net>
Cc: cq-contest at contesting.com
Message-ID: <A8BE359DB88E42A8A6DE69B6D9F13B5B at CHEM>
Content-Type: text/plain;       charset="us-ascii"

I had this happen when operating in the vicinity of 14.275 MHz. The station
who declared he was hearing splatter said his call was KZ8O and he was in
Michigan. I checked with a number of other stations in OH and MI after that
and got assured that there was no problem. Later NX7TT called me to tell me
that this station is famous for making such claims and for recording and
replaying a person's transmissions on the air -- horribly over modulated. He
did that using my signal and operated about 500 Hz off of my frequency. The
splatter was appalling.

In the end I switched to 40 meters rather than have him hassle me and crud
up the band with splatter [supposedly caused by me] and ruin things for
other folks. I hope no one was significantly affected by his efforts. I
assure you it was not me generating that 'bad stuff'.


After the SS had ended I checked his entry in QRZ. There were more than
21,000 hits. Then I did a Google search and found he has been sent warnings
by the FCC that go back to 2000. I suspect there are other stations who
operate in the segment of the band --- the one he patrols -- who can give us
more information.

Tod, K0TO

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com
> [mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of KI9A at aol.com
> Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 8:53 PM
> To: rmthorne at suddenlink.net
> Cc: cq-contest at contesting.com
> Subject: Re: [CQ-Contest] Malicious Interference during SS
>
> Rich, I had this happen to me before on 20..the recorded CQ
> thing. I actually worked stations, and thanked the offender
> for giving me a break, and letting him do the work for me,
> while I logged the points. He stopped right  then.
>
> Best thing to do, if you have a 2nd rig, is keep on keeping
> on.  Use  the 2nd rig at that time to S&P, he will bet very bored.
>
> 73- Chuck KI9A
>
>
> In a message dated 11/20/2008 9:32:37 P.M. Central Standard
> Time, rmthorne at suddenlink.net writes:
>
> I'm  curious how the malicious interference was this year.  I
> operated at
> K5NA this year.  I had a major problem around 14.281 this
> year.   I was
> sucked into a conversation with a station who would not use
> his call sign.  He told me that I was splattering so I
> adjusted my mic gain  and
> compression.  The ham thanked me and said it was fixed.
> After a few q's
> he said I was splattering again, I figured out he was
> playing games.
> Soon after he was transmitting recordings of my  cq's.  I was
> able to work through it for a while but my rate suffered  so
> I ended up moving.
>
> In this particular case it was at the beginning  of the
> contest.  I had made a few qso's about starting 15 minutes
> prior to the contest so I had established that the frequency
> was not  previously used and there were no frequency conflicts.
>
> So how did  it go for every one else this year?  I guess in
> the future I need to  add 14.280 to the list of  frequencies
> to avoid.  The sstv window has been on my list for quite some time.
>
> Rich -  N5ZC