[CQ-Contest] Operating Ethics for Multi-Op contest Stations

[Michael Coslo]

On Apr 2, 2009, at 11:30 AM, Eric Hilding wrote:


> Some options immediately come to mind, assuming that reasonable  
> people can
> collectively agree on reasonable solutions to problems {cough,  
> gag}.  Using
> the 20m SSB USA frequency spectrum as an example, all SSTV, Nets and  
> other
> low-population special interest groups could migrate their frequency
> ownership claims (cough, gag} and activities to locations ABOVE  
> 14.330 Mhz
> on a PERMANENT basis.
>
> The WARC bands came into existence during my lengthy absence from  
> HF, but my
> understanding is that these venues have been kept Contest-Free in  
> order to
> provide non-Contesters a safe haven in which to pursue Contest-FREE
> enjoyment of what is supposed to be a Hobby.

	It's kind of a self preservation thing. We can say "here's a place  
you can go when there is a contest". It goes a long way toward  
defusing their argument of "no place to go".  It doesn't mean that  
contesters own the rest of the bands.


> As many of us are soliciting new Contesters into the fold on an  
> ongoing
> basis, there certainly isn't much of an attraction to handing them a  
> lengthy
> laundry list of individual 20m SSB frequencies that are verboten to  
> try and
> keep track of.

It isn't that difficult, really. If there is someone there and  
operating, we'll hear it, and we don't want to open up on them. Get  
the new guy, let him listen to rtty, PSK and SSTV, so they'll know  
what it is.

There are many different perspectives on just who should be where on  
the bands, and what amounts to one voice channel it really isn't that  
big a deal to avoid problems. We have a workable solution already.

And we can't (shouldn't) really decide that the amount of population  
on that voice channel makes the practitioners a target for a forced  
move to another frequency. We don't even want to go there, lest in the  
future some other users decide that CW mode gets forced into a smaller  
and smaller area.

Most of these folk have a reason they don't like contesters. Want to  
do that newbie a favor? Tell them that good manners are important.


-73 de Mike N3LI -