[CQ-Contest] anti-contest petition MMSN

[David Gilbert]

My analogy is the hospital parking lot.  On a light day everyone has an 
easy time of it.  On a busy day, everyone has to struggle for a parking 
spot and only the true emergencies get to park at the door (and even 
then only temporarily).  And anyone who drives a 4 KHz wide RV to the 
hospital on a busy day is an idiot reviled by everyone.

In my opinion, contests (like them or not) generate the majority of 
activity on the bands, and during a major one EVERYONE struggles to find 
an open spot.  I have several times listened to the Maritime Net and I 
have never once heard them handle what I would consider emergency 
traffic.  I'm not saying they don't provide a useful service, but 
they're doing so on a public band and in the absence of a true emergency 
I don't see how they have any justifiable expectation to less QRM than 
anyone else.  I too have heard them chase off guys 2KHz away that were 
there before the net fired up.

In actual practice I stay away from their frequency but that's my 
choice, not their right.

73,
Dave   AB7E




kr2q at optimum.net wrote:
> I did not know about this.  Even more, look at their home page: http://www.mmsn.org/
>
> The petition "background" is amazing to me.  I quote:
> "The Maritime Mobile Service Net (MMSN) operates on 14300.0 KHz, 365 days a year, from 12
> noon until 10 PM Eastern time. "
>
> So they effectively own this QRG for 10 hours per day, every day?  And you have to just
> love the precision: "decimal zero."  :-)
>
> Additionally, they claim massive support (TIC): "This was the wish of all nearly 100 amateurs attending the GAREC meeting. "
>
> Wow...100 of them, huh?  Let's see, if we add up the ops at the top 10 M/M's...that would be...
> oh, more than 100.  Not to mention the ten of thousands of contest participants nor the 
>   
>> 5000 entrants (SSB CQWW).
>>     
>
> They have a petition? We should too.  Any volunteers?
>
> I'm all in favor of emergency ops taking priority...but only when there is an emergency.  Just
> how many lives have been lost because their NET heard contesters actually contesting that
> prevented them from "doing their thing?"
>
> The thing that further gets me, is that they think that we are somehow focusing on them;
> I guess they are unable to actually the band beyond their own net QRG.
>
> As far as I know, nobody should have exclusive rights to any QRG, never mind for
> "365 days a year, from 12 noon until 10 PM"
>
> What brass!
>
> de Doug KR2Q
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